Dyson to axe around 1k jobs in Britain

[ml-anon]

Turns out its hard to be competitive when you abandon a large and wealthy market on your doorstep. Maybe its time we stop bending over backwards to please assholes like this?

[alephnerd]

Dyson has been pivoting away from the UK for Singapore, Phillipines, and Malaysia for several years now [0][1], as the skill set in Battery Tech, Plastic Mould Injections, etc are much more available there, and the governments much more business friendly.

They moved their HQ to Singapore back in 2019 for that reason.

This move would have happened with or without Brexit.

Edit: Why the downvotes?

Outside of specialized high value manufacturing like Aerospace (Rolls Royce), Power Systems (Siemens, Rolls Royce), and Defense (BAE Systems) the consumer manufacturing skillset is morose in the UK, and engineering talent just isn't there compared to peers like Germany, let alone manufactured powerhouses in ASEAN.

And fundamentally, Engineering just isn't respected in the UK and it's reflected by the careers taken up by graduates. They'd rather be barristers, accountants, or financiers earning a £40-45k starting salary instead of £25-35k as an Engineer, and applied engineering programs similar to American Community Colleges+Land/Sea/Sun/Space Grants or Singaporean Polytechnics don't exist anymore.

[0] - https://www.ft.com/content/51c2c41a-d8fe-11e8-a854-33d6f82e6...

[1] - https://www.wired.com/story/dyson-moving-hq-to-singapore/htt...

[n4r9]

I think the issue is less about the move itself but how it looks for the CEO in light of various comments he's made over the years. He has a tendency to weigh in on political issues, sometimes in quite a hyperbolic fashion and sometimes in seeming contrast to his actions. For example, in 2000 he said claimed it would be "suicidal" for the UK not to join the Euro currency, but hey look we still have a functioning economy. In 2016 he said that Britain has more to gain from leaving the EU than staying in, yet has since axed over 1500 jobs in the UK and moved the HQ out to Singapore.

I wouldn't say this necessarily makes him a hypocrite, it just feels rich that he gets airtime for his questionable views on political topics all the while having basically no skin in the game.

[mmarian]

Appreciate the level-headed take.

[_delirium]

The BBC article [1] quotes a laid off employee as claiming that Dyson completely axed the UK R&D division, despite not formally closing the famous R&D building in Malmesbury:

> But one Dyson employee who received notice today told the BBC though the physical R&D building remained, "everyone involved in R&D have now exited all Dyson buildings".

[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6p2660ldn2o

[maxglute]

I know it's a matter of taste, but are there any non ugly vacuums out there? Muji/Xiaomi has some nice simple designs, but can't get them in North America.

E: non ugly cordless stick vacuum specifically

[djhn]

Samsung Jet flagship surprised me positively. As in, actually surprised me because it wasn’t the one I would have picked and every step of the way from unboxing to emptying it after use I was expecting to find some disappointing design choice or antifeature. It did quite well on Project Farm as well https://youtu.be/RTkUNwBo9Ao?si=T9aR1WM-IpXqUyq1

[ljf]

We always loved our G-tech: https://www.gtech.co.uk/cordless-vacuum-cleaners.html

For a wood floored two bed house, when there was just two of us and a cat, it was perfect.

But we now have a larger house with 2 kids and 2 cats, and it just wasn't keeping up. I still have it, and use it to clean my office and even the decking and paving slabs in the garden.

[CaptainJack]

Numatic Henry's are a classic of design [1], are built to last with the same design for 50 years. All parts can be changed, spares are plenty, and they were built with janitors in mind, so meant to handle daily use.

[1] As-in, they design is iconic.

[VelNZ]

Miele vacuums have classic designs and colors. The Miele C1 I bought recently is even made in Germany.

[mikemitchelldev]

The article says Dyson (a vacuum manufacturer) was working on an electric vehicle until 2019. Did they give up too early?

[segasaturn]

No, they gave up too late! Instead of chasing trends out of their lane, they should have been working on the robot vacuum everyone wanted them to make. They only released their first robot vacuum this year[1] because they were side tracked making EVs and wireless headphones[2]

1: https://www.dysoncanada.ca/en/vacuum-cleaners/robot/360-visn...

2: https://www.dysoncanada.ca/en/headphones/zone

[rasz]

It was real estate and subsidies play (extracting money from Singapore).

[oniony]

I feel like Sinclair was ahead of the curve on this one.

[benguild]

it has to be because of those combination sink hand dryers. terrible!

[Daviey]

... another Brexit success story from a pro-Brexiter investing in UK jobs.

[swarnie]

Nothing to do with his repeated attempts to expand the Malmesbury facilities and being turned down by mad councillors at every turn?

I only worked in the town for four years so forgive my ignorance on the topic.