Almost 75% of growth comes from growing far east markets as Dyson sales hit £3.5bn

Growing demand for battery-powered vacuum cleaners, hairdryers and air purifiers in flourishing Asian markets has helped Dyson, the British technology company, to a year of bumper profits.

Sir James Dyson, the British inventor who revolutionised the vacuum cleaner, said the company he founded had benefited from “extraordinary enthusiasm for technology” in Asia to help boost annual sales by 40% last year to reach £3.5bn.

Dyson’s profits for 2017 rose by almost a third since 2016 to reach £801m, with almost three-quarters of the company’s growth coming from Asia at a time of growing demand for technology and consumer products from the region’s burgeoning middle classes.

Sales in continental Europe and the Americas both increased by about a fifth, in a year when the British company sold its 100 millionth machine and total manufacturing volumes increased to a record 80,000 units a day.

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A prominent supporter of Brexit before the referendum, Dyson said the UK was “having a tough time at the moment” but “I hope it will bounce back.”

He blamed the retail sector’s slump on the fall in the value of the pound, which he said could happen as a result of currencies fluctuating on international exchanges. “It’s tough trading for retailers and people are switching to online sales,” he added.



Despite the difficult conditions for many firms after the Brexit vote, the billionaire said he had not changed his view that leaving the EU would be best for the country – even as other business leaders grow increasingly concerned over the potential damage from the UK leaving the single market and customs union.

He said Dyson already pays World Trade Organization tariffs – of key concern to business leaders should Britain crash out of the EU without reaching a deal with Brussels – because his company manufactures products in Singapore and then exports them around the world, including to Europe.



“We pay the WTO treaty [tariffs] going into both Europe and Britain and yet we grew 21% in Europe last year,” he said. “Most of it goes straight to Brussels, and Brussels would be a lot worse off without a treaty with Britain.”

Dyson announced late last year that he was developing an electric car at a former second world war airfield at Hullavington, close to his company’s headquarters in Malmesbury, Wiltshire. He said the firm was hiring 300 workers in the UK to work on the car, which is due to be ready for road testing in 2020, with the first deliveries coming a year later.



Development of a driverless vehicle would be part of his company’s plans in the future, he said, but it was still too early for the widespread launch of autonomous vehicles.

Asked whether he would mass-produce the car in the UK, he said: “We’re still having discussions, but we’ll have to make a decision fairly soon.”