Dyson considers shifting some back-office work to Philippines
UK appliances manufacturer Dyson Ltd. is looking at moving some back-office functions to the Philippines after it had successfully put up a manufacturing facility in the country, the British Ambassador to the Philippines said.
“For Dyson, that’s still work in progress. They’re studying it and it may happen. But they’re not the only one,” British Ambassador Asif Ahmad told reporters on Monday in a media gathering at his Makati City residence.
The company, which makes household and industrial appliances, is exploring the possibility of putting up shared services in the country after its representatives saw the embassy’s back office functions in the Philippines, Mr. Ahmad said.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if companies like Dyson actually chooses to do what we have done, which is to move all our back office functions that are outside the UK [to the Philippines],” he said.
Mr. Ahmad said Dyson made the decision to locate in the country after it previously planned about five or six years ago that its innovation hub would be in the UK while manufacturing would be in Malaysia.
“They’re already here. The concrete decision has been made. Their plant is up and running,” he said.
The decision to manufacture in the Philippines came after Dyson realized that it needed access to more engineers and design talent in its expansion strategy.
“They looked around the world. They could have set up anywhere. They came and talked to us and other people here,” Mr. Ahmad said, adding that the briefing it had for the company was not sugar-coated. “We talked about the good things, the bad things, the things that we’re hoping would change.”
“In the end, they decided this is where they want to set up their manufacturing. But having done so, they now realize that they could do more here, that there’s actually plenty of young engineers coming through the system that they want to use their engineering talent,” he said.
He said the embassy was also getting inquiries from other British companies that wish to do business in the Philippines.
“There’s a lot of manufacturing going on here in the Philippines that nobody knows about because it’s not visible,” he said. “Which is why when there is a downturn in Taiwan or Korea or in the UK in electronics, you feel the chill here because of the supply chain effect.”