Eye on Asia | The Brexit debate is too important to be sidetracked by the red herring of Dyson’s move to Singapore
- It is interesting and illustrative to look at the importance of this move in the context of its size, why it is happening and analyse any possible ‘Brexit effects’ and their impact on other businesses
The announcement a few days ago that Dyson – one of Britain’s leading, innovative and most successful businesses with annual sales of over £4 billion (US$5.25 billion) – was moving its head office from the UK to Singapore, was big news not only in the UK but throughout Asia.
Dyson started producing vacuum cleaners in Chippenham in the UK in 1993 before moving to Malmesbury two years later. It invested millions in the site, tripling its UK workforce in the five years up to 2018, with 1,100 employees in Singapore, 1,300 in Malaysia, 1,000 in China and 800 in the Philippines.
However, the news of Dyson’s latest shift was reported and commented on in a variety of lurid ways, particularly in the UK. This is illustrated by even the leading business newspaper, with its disappointingly and unfortunately biased front page headline entitled: ‘Brexit-backer Dyson shifts company HQ to Singapore’.
Simply because Dyson is a Brexit supporter, there has been a Gadarene rush by several members of parliament to condemn him for ‘hypocrisy’, ‘betrayal’ and indicating the bleak post-Brexit business challenges.
Therefore, it is interesting and illustrative to look at the importance of this move in the context of its size, why it is happening and analyse any possible ‘Brexit effects’ and their impact on other businesses.
First, the size of the move. It turns out that just two executives – the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Legal Officer – are actually moving to Singapore, and no jobs will be lost. Of course, any future recruitment of new staff will be in Singapore and not in the UK.
Dyson still employs 4,000 people in – as they put it, their ‘heart and soul’ – the UK, which is critical to the future research and development facilities with their high requirements and demands for highly skilled staff, engineers and scientists. Dyson said this week that it would be spending £200 million in new buildings and testing facilities in Hullavington, and £44 million in refreshing office space and adding new laboratories in Malmesbury as well as investing £31 million for the young undergraduates at its university on the same site.
