Dyson cleans up with American sale

FORMER small businessman turned multi-millionaire entrepreneur James Dyson is the new king of vacuum cleaner manufacturers in the US. Little more than two years after launching on the other side of the Atlantic, the group claims to have overtaken Hoover with its distinctive dual-cyclone model. Nearly 900,000 were sold last year.

That is likely to mean another big pay day for Dyson and his wife Deirdre, who own the business. They have written themselves dividend cheques of more than £20m over the past two years as profits have surged.

Figures released by Dyson today show its success in the US pushed up revenue by 54% to £426m in the 12 months to 31 December, with £173m from America. Profits across the group more than doubled, rising almost £60m to £103m.

Dyson said: 'America is a notoriously difficult market to crack and I believe it is our technology, which is developed in Britain, that the Americans are buying.'

The US market for upright vacuum cleaners is worth more than $2.3bn (£1.2bn) and Dyson took the leading position by value at the end of last year. It now has a 20.7% share, compared with 4.5% at the end of 2003.

The company's rapid success has been helped by cameo appearances of its products on famous sitcoms such as Friends and Will and Grace. They are sold in Sears, Barney's and Wal-Mart.

Some 70% of sales are on products costing more than $195, up from 25% in 2003. In the most recent quarter, Dyson accounted for eight out of 10 uprights sold above this price.

The profits rise is likely to anger union bosses in Britain, still fuming over Dyson's decision three years ago to axe 500 jobs in Wiltshire and transfer the bulk of his production to Malaysia.

Dyson insists he faced a stark choice - go out of business or transfer jobs to grow and eventually create more jobs at his Malmesbury base. Some 1,200 people-are still employed there.

His backers also point to the effort he put into making the dual-cyclone machine. He launched the bagless cleaner in 1992 and it took 5,127 prototypes to perfect.

Rather than use a filter bag like a conventional vacuum cleaner, the Dyson cyclones create a centrifugal force to spit dirt and debris into the outer transparent casing.

The profit contribution from the UK last year rose 10% to £67m. Sales growth across Europe was 32%.