Vacuum cleaner manufacturer Dyson to cut around 1,000 jobs in the UK

Vacuum cleaner manufacturer Dyson is set to cut around 1,000 jobs in the U.K., where it currently employs 3,500 people.

The company, known for its innovative hair dryers, air conditioners and more, said the review of its business came as it faced “increasingly fierce and competitive global markets.”

“We have grown quickly and, like all companies, we review our global structures from time to time to ensure we are prepared for the future. As such, we are proposing changes to our organization, which may result in redundancies,” Dyson’s CEO, Hanno Kirner, said in a statement emailed to CNBC.  

“Dyson operates in increasingly fierce and competitive global markets, in which the pace of innovation and change is only accelerating. We know we always need to be entrepreneurial and agile – principles that are not new to Dyson.”

The company said people whose jobs are at risk would be supported through the process. It is unclear whether any global jobs will be affected at this stage.

The U.K. is expected to remain a key research and development center for Dyson, which has an Institute of Engineering and Technology in Malmesbury, England.

The business review at the company began before the U.K. general election was announced in May by former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The opposition Labour Party won a landslide victory in the vote, unseating the incumbent Conservatives after 14 years.

James Dyson, the engineering firm’s founder and chief engineer, had been a vocal critic of Sunak, slamming his pledges to make Britain a “science superpower” in a letter to The Times of London.