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Vacuum cleaner king Dyson becomes mega farmer

26 September 2018 - Niels van der Boom - 19 comments

British inventor, Brexit supporter and multi-billionaire James Dyson has a new title. The 71-year-old entrepreneur, known for vacuum cleaner and hair dryer brand Dyson, has become the largest arable farmer in the United Kingdom. He continues to invest his assets in land.

Dyson is not only the largest arable farmer. He is high-profile, rich and Brexit supporter† This is fairly unusual within the circle of multinationals, which see divestment from the European Union (EU) primarily as a major disadvantage. Perhaps this is a reason for Dyson's urge to expand.

41,4

million euros

Dyson spent on farmland

Land purchase
Trade magazine Farmer's Weekly went through the annual figures of Dyson's arable farm 'Beeswax Dyson Farming'. The company spreads over 3 counties (spread over almost the entire width of the island). With the purchase of more than 800 hectares of agricultural land in 2018, the company size has grown to 14.163 hectares. €41,4 million was earmarked for this. With this acreage, Dyson is the largest arable farmer in the country.

In 2017, the company turned over €17,58 million, with a profit of €800.000 before tax. In 2016, the numbers were still in the red, with a loss of €1,68 million. The sale of various products yielded €9,2 million. In addition, 2 biodigesters accounted for a turnover of €2017 million in 6,8.

The plan is to expand the energy branch of the arable farm. Energy maize and leafy rye are grown on 2.150 hectares for the digesters. Nice detail: in 5 years the company spent €103 million on mechanization and the 2 fermentation installations.

Electric cars
The numbers may be impressive, but compared to Dyson's vacuum cleaner business, they're relatively low. That amount has a turnover of almost €4 billion. Dyson is even planning to build an electric car production plant. That investment will cost him a mere $2,24 billion.

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Niels van der Boom

Niels van der Boom is a senior market specialist for arable crops at DCA Market Intelligence. He mainly makes analyses and market updates about the potato market. In columns he shares his sharp view on the arable sector and technology.
Comments
19 comments
Subscriber
Gyro Gearloose 26 September 2018
This is in response to it Boerenbusiness article:
[url=http://www.boerenbusiness.nl/grond/ artikel/10880055/ vacuum cleaner king-dyson-wordt-megaboer] Vacuum cleaner king Dyson becomes a mega farmer[/url]
800.000 profit on 14.000 ha. is less than €60 per hectare.
xx 26 September 2018
Dyson also knows that the profit on the ground is not the best.
He assumes that the price of land will continue to rise sharply.
Even if only 1 euro is added in 10 years, that is 14.000 million euros on 140 ha.
herb 26 September 2018
1,4 million but
xx 26 September 2018
Is it really 140 million?
hans 26 September 2018
Buy much too expensive, and then expect a euro the meter price increase for that land?
Of course peanuts for such people, who never open their new factories in the western world, not in those beautiful hills of GB, but in the cheap wages countries. With import and export without barriers, and fiscally inaccessible.
In this way the elite enrich themselves and the population is left behind.
Skirt 26 September 2018
Can you see what can be earned with crumbs? Dyson outsmarts us all.
hans 26 September 2018
I would mostly stick the last part on Dyson from petty thief. Because who is stealing the jobs, the contents of the wallet, and the tax revenues of the entire Western world?
Skirt 27 September 2018
Hans, you are now confused again, but of course you are free not to use a vacuum cleaner.
hans 27 September 2018
I understand, Kjol, that you accept every rule and law of country rulers for sweet cake.
Tax incentives and false competition may be legal by law, but I find them morally illegal and totally reprehensible.
Ard Eshuis 29 September 2018
Hans is right. You are only really handsome and credible if you manage to produce and earn money here. Don't pretend to be a European company and have production carried out in third world countries and avoid taxes by setting up all kinds of constructions!
Skirt 29 September 2018
Surely you don't have any products from a 'third world' country like China? By 2030, this country will have the largest economy in the world, thanks in part to companies such as Dyson that manufacture its products there. The fact that the EU is not yet a 2nd world country is purely due to the printing of the Euro, the low interest rate gives a postponement of execution. Dyson is not crazy either, he also takes this into account and invests his money in stable land positions, business operations are secondary but fun as long as it does not cost too much money.
hans 29 September 2018
Companies like Dyson are making us a 2nd, or soon 3rd world country. They funnel our capital. Why is Trump such a success, why is the US economy boosting? Less imports, more production, so employment in our own country. Down with the Dysons.

ps, Fixed land positions, when the euro or pound goes down??
Subscriber
Skirt 30 September 2018
Money is just paper, land is a hard asset, just like gold.
A low British pound could even give agriculture in England a boost, exports could then increase considerably.
However, interest is a rat, so you think it won't bother you, but at a next unexpected moment it will be back, so don't have too much faith in low interest rates, they are only temporary.
hans 30 September 2018
Soil is infected with a price bubble in some W European countries.
Something like Gold has a fixed value, but a gold ring itself is far too expensive. You invest in gold, not in gold rings.
Indeed, a lower pound (or euro) would provide tremendous support, especially to agriculture, if it is not overly dependent on commodity imports.
ad 2 October 2018
Hans I'm not going to complete you you're right
we exchange the euros for chinese plastic. a real shame.
Skirt 2 October 2018
The Chinese are a very strong and smart people, really unprecedented what they have achieved in a very short period of time.
hans 2 October 2018
Certainly true Kjol, but didn't our parents achieve the same successes after WWII? This is, of course, true of many peoples, now and in the past.
The big question is always how long something like this will last. Great cultures arise and disappear, as history teaches us.
It seems clear to me that we here in the west are completely wasting the legacy of the previous generation. Bright and smart are apparently not inheritable.
Hopefully the Chinese will learn something from our mistakes, too much faith in a government that donates all the achievements and accumulated capital to the multinationals.
Subscriber
Skirt 2 October 2018
First of all, Chinese culture is many times older than our culture and also incomparable, and it will certainly not disappear any time soon.
What they do in China is very targeted and systematically working towards a better future, which they do relatively easily because they are not hindered by a viscous democratic system.
NL was well on its way until the Dutch disease struck and gas revenues were lauded, many large genuine Dutch companies were subsequently closed down, sold or left for places where a manufacturing industry was still valued and NL had to have a clean economics, because after all, that suits a 'highly educated modern people'.
Unfortunately, this has all led to a culture of dependence, especially now that natural gas is also coming to an end, and we therefore have to blow with all the winds in order not to perish internationally (see, for example, abolition of dividend tax for foreign shareholders).



kees 2 October 2018
Very good understanding of what is currently going on Kjol.
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