Dyson is the latest company to announce a series of job losses amid the Coronavirus pandemic.
During a video conference on Thursday, the staff was told that 600 UK jobs and a further 300 worldwide roles would be cut.
“The Covid-19 crisis has accelerated changes in consumer behaviour and therefore requires changes in how we engage with our customers and how we sell our products,” said a spokesperson for the group.
“We are evolving our organisation and reflecting these changes to make us faster, more agile, and better able to grow sustainably.”
“These proposals would regrettably result in around 600 redundancies in the UK and 300 in the rest of the world. We are fully supporting those who are impacted, finding alternative roles where possible,” the spokesperson added.
Most of those affected by the job cuts will be staff in retail and customer service roles.
Whilst Dyson has not used the furlough scheme or relied on any public money during the pandemic, the group is owned by James Dyson’s, Britain’s wealthiest person. Dyson is worth over £16.2bn.
“There’s a lot of resentment that we are owned by the richest man in the UK but a temporary blip in sales has resulted in 900 job losses worldwide,” a source told the Guardian.
“His increase in wealth last year alone would be enough to make everyone [of the staff] in the UK affected a millionaire and he’d still have £3bn of it left over,” the source added.
Earlier this year during the pandemic, Dyson created the “ventilator challenge”, where it helped build medical ventilators in the aid to treat patients of the Coronavirus.
