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Dyson is cutting about 1,000 jobs in the UK, more than a quarter of its workforce in the country.
Employees at the vacuum cleaner and air filter maker were notified of the layoffs Tuesday morning, which people familiar with the matter said are part of a broader move to cut the company’s 15,000 jobs worldwide.
The job cuts are a blow to the UK and come on the same day that new foreign secretary Jonathan Reynolds gathered more than 100 senior executives to set his priorities.
Dyson’s biggest market is Asia, where the business competes with local rivals who often produce similar-looking products shortly after the company’s.
“Dyson operates in increasingly tough and competitive global markets where the pace of innovation and change is only accelerating. We know that we must always be entrepreneurial and agile,” said Hanno Kirner, CEO.
“We’ve grown rapidly and, like all companies, we review our global structures from time to time to make sure we’re ready for the future,” he added, adding that the job cuts were “always incredibly painful.”
The review that led to the dismissals began before the UK general election, was convened in May, according to people familiar with the process, and is unrelated to the dismissals.
Dyson employs around 3,500 people in the UK. The company did not say how many roles will be phased out globally, with reviews ongoing on a country-by-country basis.
The company, which is still overseen by founder Sir James Dyson, has grown from its original specialization in vacuum cleaners to products including hair dryers, fans and air purifiers. Its engineers are working on dozens of potential projects, many of which are never made public.
Dyson in 2019 abandoned a £2bn effort to break into electric vehicle production, although it continues to work on batteries for its cordless products.
Cuts in the UK are expected to affect every department, including management levels. Britain is to remain the company’s R&D hub and will continue to be its main product development hub, although some of that work is already taking place in Singapore.
However, the job cuts may further complicate the perception of the company’s founder, one of Britain’s most successful inventors and entrepreneurs, in the UK.
The billionaire lost a defamation battle against the publisher of the Daily Mirror last year over an article that called the industrialist a “hypocrite” for backing Brexit but later moving his company’s headquarters to Singapore.
The company said at the time that Brexit was not a motivating factor for the move, which it said was for commercial reasons, with most of its customers and all of its manufacturing operations in Asia.
Sir James Dyson said in December that the UK’s current political leaders, from both the Conservative and Labor parties, were “not pro-growth” and that “generations of wealth and growth” had become “buzzwords”.
New Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves have put “growth” at the heart of their UK ambitions, but face persistent accusations from opponents that they will have to raise taxes.
The Dyson founder clashed with former Tory chancellor Jeremy Hunt in March in a meeting at No 11 Downing Street that observers described as “fiery”. According to one person familiar with the exchange, Hunt asked the trader: “If you think you could do a better job, why don’t you just run?