Dyson to lay off a third of UK workforce, blaming ‘increasingly fierce and competitive global markets’

Dyson is laying off almost a third of its UK workforce in a move it attributes to “increasingly fierce and competitive global markets”.

The vacuum cleaner maker, founded in 1991 by inventor Sir James Dyson, will cut about 1,000 of its 3,500 jobs in Britain.

The news is a setback for Labour, which is less than a week into its new government, but it has nothing to do with the election result.

Founder Dyson, a prominent Brexit advocate, has become increasingly critical of the UK’s “short-sighted” approach to business amid mounting regulation and rising corporate taxes.

Staff were informed of the layoffs yesterday via an email from General Manager Hanno Kirner.

He said: ‘We have grown rapidly and like all businesses we review our global structures from time to time to ensure we are prepared for the future.

‘That is why we are proposing changes to our organization, which could potentially lead to layoffs.’

Kirner acknowledged that the restructuring would be “extremely painful” and said those whose jobs are at stake would be “supported through the process.”

Dyson makes a range of products including hand dryers, hair dryers, fans and heaters, as well as vacuum cleaners. The group’s UK base is in Wiltshire, but it also has offices in London and Bristol.

The Mail understands that yesterday’s announcement did not mean that any British jobs were being moved overseas, with the UK remaining a key location for the company’s research and development work.

But the decision highlights the UK’s struggle to retain jobs, particularly after the previous government raised corporation tax from 19 percent to 25 percent.

That’s what pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca said when it decided last year to build a £320 million factory in Ireland instead.

Dyson has already been cutting jobs in recent years, cutting 600 in the UK and 300 overseas at the start of the pandemic.

In 2002, the company began moving production from Wiltshire to Malaysia. In 2013, it opened a factory in Singapore to make digital engines.

In a newspaper interview in December last year, Dyson, 77, claimed that “wealth creation” and “growth” had become “dirty words”, criticising both the then Conservative government and Labour.