Sir James Dyson to spend £1.5bn going for growth

Sir James Dyson will today unveil a £1.5bn package of investments across his business empire ahead of the launch of 100 new products over the next four years.

The entrepreneur, best known for developing the bagless vacuum cleaner in the 1990s, said the bulk of the money – around £1bn – will be spent on research and development (R&D), followed by £250m on a technology campus in Malmesbury, Wiltshire. Sir James claimed this will create up to 3,000 jobs and include a sports facility. A further £200m will be spent helping his Dyson company expand in Asia and £50m on research programmes with British universities.

He said: “Our growth is fuelled by technology and we are thinking long-term. About 90 per cent of our technology is sold abroad, we’re quickly growing across Asia, and it’s phenomenal to think we are now number one in the home of technology – Japan. It is like selling coal to Newcastle.

“But we must relentlessly invent – that’s why we are investing in our research footprint here in the UK and investing in our manufacturing capabilities in South-East Asia.”

Dyson said it currently invests about a third of its profits in R&D and employs around 2,000 engineers, half of whom are in the UK.

Among the new products being launched is the “Dyson 360 Eye” vacuum leaner, “an intelligent robot that is finally capable of cleaning properly”, according to the company. Another, the Dyson Humidifier, has already been launched in Japan.

In Asia, Dyson is now a market-leading seller of vacuum cleaners in Japan as well as Taiwan and Hong Kong.