Inventiveness of local staff key to Dyson's expansion here, says founder

Dyson's expansion here is made possible by the "wonderful inventiveness and enthusiasm" of young local engineers and scientists working for the British consumer electronics multinational, founder James Dyson said yesterday.

"You can feel the ambition of this ingenious country," he said at an event to mark the official opening of Dyson's new global headquarters at St James Power Station.

"It reaffirms our belief that Singapore is the right place for high-tech, research-intensive businesses such as Dyson."

The inventor and billionaire entrepreneur noted Singapore stands at the centre of Dyson's global supply chain, and is where the company researches, designs and develops products, such as the vacuum cleaners and hair stylers the company is best known for.

"For these reasons, it is our global headquarters," said Mr Dyson.

He also announced that Dyson would commit $1.5 billion in Singapore over the next four years - as part of a $4.9 billion global investment programme - and hire more than 250 engineers and scientists here in fields such as robotics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, sensing and vision systems. The $1.5 billion sum will also support ongoing university research programmes to drive technology development.

Dyson's new  110,000 sq ft base will house 18 state-of-the-art research laboratories to help develop new technology products.

Employees like senior robotics engineer Saiful Jumari, 29, told The Straits Times a pull factor of being at Dyson was the chance to work on new, innovative and "unexpected" products. He joined Dyson in 2018 after obtaining a physics degree and was later sponsored by the company to complete a robotics nanodegree. His work programming intelligent robots that respond autonomously to their environment was described by PM Lee as "cutting edge" in his speech.

"If you look at Dyson products, the first time the bladeless fan was introduced, I heard people didn't even know it was a fan," Mr Saiful explained. "So, I look forward to working on products that are not out there in the market, and the first time you unveil them in public, people will probably be like 'what on earth is that?' "

The home appliance giant has been expanding its footprint here since landing in 2004. The city-state is a hub for its research and engineering teams, as well as commercial, advanced manufacturing and supply chain operations.

Singapore is also the lead manufacturing site for the Hyperdymium motors at the heart of most Dyson devices. The company has been producing digital motors in Singapore since 2004, and opened its first office here with 10 employees at Science Park in 2007.

Today, Dyson also runs an advanced motor manufacturing facility near the Boon Lay area, and a technology centre at Science Park for digital, engineering and cyber-security activities. It employs over 1,400 people in Singapore - 560 of them are engineers and scientists.

Mr Dyson said the company is looking at more spaces, including a factory in Tuas to manufacture "a new battery".

St James Power Station was built in 1927 as Singapore's first coal-fired power plant, before becoming an automated warehouse and then a nightlife spot. It was gazetted as a national monument in 2009, and secured as head office by Dyson in 2019. Construction to restore the building and to increase its floor area began in late 2018 and was completed early last year.

Correction note: An earlier version of this story said Dyson has a new 10,000 sq ft base at St James Power Station. It should be 110,000 sq ft. We are sorry for the error.