Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

• Despite the recession, global sales for the company increased 23% to 770m GBP
• Operating profits more than doubled from 90m to 190m GBP
• The Dyson Air Multiplier is a top seller in Australia; within 6 weeks, representing 64% of the market for desk fans, by value.
• In the UK and US markets, the updated 'ball' range represents more than half of the Dyson cleaners sold.
• In the UK, the company has a total market share for vacuum cleaners, by value, of 40%.
• Dyson is the market leader for vacuum cleaner sales (by value) in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, France, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, Ireland and New Zealand.

Looking ahead, the company talks about new product launches scheduled towards the end of 2010 - a fair number of which (my speculation) are likely to continue the trend of offering a completive advantage by using digital motor technology. Ironically, a technology originally developed for use in their full-size vacuums, while all current models continue to use traditional motors.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/dyson-profits-double-thanks-to-rd-investment-1983841.html

http://www.themanufacturer.com/uk/content/10603/Dyson_cleans_up

http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/channel/Entrepreneurship/news/1006022/sales-vacuum-dyson-gadgets-cost-worth-paying/

http://www.eurekamagazine.co.uk/article/25296/Dyson-doubles-operating-profits.aspx - note: this has the statement 'The company has also confirmed plans to launch a robotic version of its bagless vacuum cleaner' - dunno if that's significant, but I haven't seen it reported elsewhere.

Excerpted from the article verbatim:

"The company employs 2,500 people worldwide, exports to 49 countries and is the market leader in Dyson in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, France, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, Ireland and New Zealand."

What does it really mean?  It doesn't say anything.

It means they're (reportedly) continuing to carve a large slice of sales in a lot of important market places. Sure, they're not no1 everywhere - but are there any better contenders you know of? (genuine question). How do TTI, Electrolux, Orek compare in value sales?

Here's a quote you missed:

"But there were also some blind alleys once the company had become a worldwide success. In 2000, Dyson launched the world's first "dual drum, counter rotating" washing machine. But consumers' response was lukewarm and after three, unprofitable, models, the lines were discontinued. Meanwhile, Dyson's first robotic vacuum cleaner never made it beyond the trial stage. Billed as "the vacuum cleaning system of the future", the DC06 was too heavy and too expensive for production without further development."

Didn't Sir James credit sales of the contra rotating washers at 5000 units in 2004 before he pulled off the market.  But sales authorities and industry reporters could only account legitimately for 1900.  Sales puffing?

I don't know either way for those figures. 5,000 units sounds more feasible to me, given that I know a handful of people who brought one and my neighbour still uses one. As a rule, I generally pay little attention to quotes from un-credited 'insiders' as it's wildly known these are mostly made up by journalists.

BTW, how many fans are sold in Australia starting in October for the next 6 weeks?  It's June now.  Who cares what the sales are in the autumn into winter season.  Like marketing fans in the USA in March.  It's still winter.  Fans don't sell in the USA until summer season unless they are a novelty and the rich with more money than sense just have to be the first to get one.  Tell us what the dyson fan sales are at the end of the summer season compared with the competition.  Then, I'm all ears.

I don't fully understand all your points here - your question needs a little rephrasing.
As I recall, the Dyson fan originally went on sale October 2009, which was the start of the summer season in Australia. In the UK market, I'd agree they they're more of a novelty, a status-symbol item, than representing fantastic value for money. But it hasn't stopped the likes of Bugatti from having a viable business in a similar low unit, high margin vain.

I certainly want a Dyson fan as a tech toy some day - once I've wrestled with my conscience for something I'd perhaps use for 5 days in the year, global warming permiting. Other people might have different purposes - an office I rented a few years back was positioned beneath a flyover, no A/C and was unbearable for 3-4 months during the summer. In this situation, I'd certainly think twice, if Dyson was to bring out a pedestal version.

I love your enthusiasm.  With words and unaudited numbers, actual and slightly embellished, you and Sir James can paint a lovely picture in a post and/or a soundbite.  I should add all companies paint a rosy picture right up until the time it goes belly up.  I'm not saying dyson is.  I'm saying its ALL hype.  I recall Money magazine made Global Crossing one of its top ten stock pics of the year for 2005 in its January edition.  In the spring the company went belly up, bankrupt, dissolved.  Not the only one either. 

In 2003 I worked in an Internet datacentre which had Global Crossing as one of the tenants - certainly no expense spared (in datacentre terms) on their split-level reception area!

Dyson appear to have some of the sharpest PR people around and in James Dyson, a spokesperson who can turn a TV feature in to a 10 minute free advert for his hand drier / fan - it barely seems credible at times, but the networks lap it up. They're good at selling the 'hype' and it's responsible for a lot of their current success. You can't realistically criticise someone for issuing a press release and say there must surely be bad news behind the hype. Like all commercial companies, they're looking to stimulate sales at every opportunity. Since Dyson launched in the US, you've been saying virtually every 6 months that the writing's on the wall for some reason or other, but for the moment at least, it appears they're far from faltering.

Dyson certainly aren't beyond criticism. For all the right reasons for trying to invent a new type of washing machine, their arrogance that history would repeat itself, as it did with the vacuums, was proved as misguided. Although the proposition of the Dyson fan would appear, on paper, to be equally dubious - to say that the relative spend for it and hence risk appears minimal, since it's generally the sum of discoveries from the digital motor v2 / Airblade R&D.

A question for you and our UK posters.  You have told us many times in the past that dyson, as a privately owned company, doesn't have to report financial results until Nov 2010 for 2009.  That has been its past practice too for reporting.  So why is dyson doing so now so early?  Answer that, please.

Dyson aren't required to file their public accounts for the year ending 2009 until 30/09/2010 at the latest, but they can finalise their accounts at any time before then. I suspect that they're choosing to announce early has everything to do with the publicity and sales for the months ahead. You'd expect the key figures given (turnover, profit) to be correct, as they'll surely be compared once they're on the public record.

Not the same without your input.....glad your back.

turtle

I'm not sure I've responded every 6 months on dysons faltering sales in the US save to say that the insiders I know at the BEST BUY store that sells the most dyson product on the east coast since it launched in the spring of 2002 keeps me posted on the latest with dyson's sales.  They have been declining year over year at his store since the last quarter of 2006 giving up ground to all the competition both bagged and bagless.

BTW, my thoughts on the early release of dyson financial results are slightly differnt than yours.  Is there is a big retail deal going down soon maybe the biggest to come the UK way in years?  Does Sir James Dyson have an ulterior motive for patting himself on the back early and often now in contrast to years past when he filed yearly results 10 months after the close of the year?

Or perhap a more ominous reason? 

Carmine D.