Sir James Dyson has acquired the lighting company owned by his eldest son Jacob (pictured).
In an interview in The Financial Times, the inventor of the bagless vacuum cleaner signalled that he plans to pass on his Dyson business to the 42-year-old; he said it is “inconceivable” that the Wiltshire-based company would be sold off to private investors.
Jacob Dyson worked as an engineer at Dyson for a couple of years, before leaving to set up on his own and design a new kind of high-powered light.
Now, after 11 years, he is returning to the Malmesbury-based company as a non-executive director. His lights — known until now by the Ariel brand name — will be sold through Dyson and made at its factory in Malaysia.
Sir James said: “The beauty of a family business is that you worry about getting the product right, not about what investors or others think. We can be patient, developing new technology that can take years to come to fruition.
"Jake loves technology and has good business and marketing sense. He has got all the things I had and more, because he is more inventive, so he’ll take the business to places that I couldn’t.”