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

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British industrial design engineer and founder of the Dyson company, James Dyson, poses with products during a photo session at a hotel in Paris on October 11, 2018. Photo: AFP

Professor Chris Rowley is a visiting fellow at Kellogg College, University of Oxford and professor emeritus, Bayes Business School, City, University of London.

Published: 8:00am, 27 Jan 2019Updated: 9:25pm, 27 Jan 2019

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’.