Rich List 2017
14 • thesundaytimes.co.uk/richlistDyson fans will, by now, have noticed that he has not
actually said no to a car or a plane. Leaked documents
recently revealed a car experiment is under way.
What does he say to critics who argue that fancy
algorithms and robots will destroy jobs? He answers by
pointing to his own firm. “We’ve created 4½ times our
workforce in the past five years, and if we carry on
growing as fast as we are now, we will increase it
another fourfold in the next five to 32,000 worldwide.
When the company started in 1993, we were just
mechanical engineers. Then we added electronics
engineers, software engineers, artificial-intelligence
engineers, vision engineers. The more we grow, of
course, the more the local economy benefits.”
And the more wealth it creates for him — Dyson is
a private company owned by Dyson himself and his
family: he and his wife, Deirdre, have three grown-up
children and six grandchildren. The company’s profits
leapt by 41% to £631m last year, on turnover that rose
45% to £2.5bn. “It’s a pretty big jump,” he grins.
Sales of his Pure Cool Link, a fan that doubles as an
air purifier, were up last year, especially in China, where
overall sales have risen almost threefold. His
Supersonic hairdryer is selling well in all territories,
even though it is far more expensive than its
competitors at £300. Few companies make money inhardware because copycat producers, using cheap
labour, depress prices, cutting profit margins. But, like
Apple, Dyson dreams up the kind of premium
products that are hard to clone and can still command
a premium price. We put the Dyson family fortune this
year at £7.8bn, up £2.8bn on last year.A
s well as developing AI, Dyson wants to
use his new R&D centre at Hullavington
to work on fast-charging, long-lasting
batteries for use in his cordless, bagless
vacuums and much more besides. “The
potential is enormous,” he says. “It will transform
aeroplanes, cars — anything where you want clean
energy or not to be tethered by a cord.”
Company insiders say Dyson hopes to create a
battery that will give his prototype electric car half as
much range again as the Tesla Model S 100D, which
leads the field at 335 miles before it needs recharging.
In 2015, Dyson spent £58m buying a pioneering
Michigan-based battery firm, Sakti3, to spark fresh
thinking among his engineers.
I’ve been talking to Dyson for an hour and a half
now. Time waits for no one, not even the latter-day
Victorian, who wants to invent, build and sell new
things, and then plough much of the profits into
education and training, so that his firm, his ideas and,
of course, his name will live on. He puts on his giant
owlish blue glasses, which is his sign that he has to go
and do more things that he can’t talk about. A flying
car, I suggest. Again, a poker face.
On my way out of his office, I check my iPhone
that needs a new Dyson battery because it is about
to run out of juice after only half a day’s use. “You
have 19 new emails,” it tells me. I need to take a leaf
out of his black-and-red notebook. He agrees to send
me one. Perhaps there’s hope nKNIGHT SCHOOL
Sir James Dyson’s
engineering institute
in Wiltshire will
welcome its first
undergraduates
in SeptemberWe’ll be a million
engineers short in
Britain in three
years’ time if we
don’t do something”
“
DAVID VINTINER FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE