Home > Business
Rowie Abanto, ABS-CBN News
MANILA – Multinational technology company Dyson said its soon-to-be developed research and manufacturing campus in the Philippines, which will be the size of 92 basketball courts, will be its largest software center.
“It will be Dyson’s largest software center,” Edwin Adriaansen, Dyson’s global software director, told reporters in a recent interview at the company’s global headquarters in Singapore.
The multi-billion dollar British company known for its bladeless fans, bagless vacuum cleaners and hair styling products also operates in Britain and Malaysia.
Dyson – which currently has a software lab in Alabang and a manufacturing facility in Calamba, Laguna – will launch its P11 billion hybrid factory in Santo Tomas, Batangas in the third quarter of 2024, in a bid to unify all its Philippine offices under one consolidate. roof.
The aim is to hire a further 400 engineers and more than 50 engineering graduates for the new hub. The company previously said the investment would create about 1,250 employees by mid-2024.
Adriaansen says they do not view the Philippines as a supporting entity for Dyson. Instead, they see operations in Batangas as key to the company’s development, adding that the country has “very talented people.”
“We can work with universities, we can set the tone, we can set the goals, we can set the future for Philippine software,” he said.
Many things were considered before Dyson chose the Philippines as the location for the multi-billion dollar investment. There are other, equally viable locations where it can put its money. But according to Adriaansen, the Philippines “has the best qualities to be successful.”
“We believe in the way that when you work on campus you have to combine plant and staff with legal people with software engineers, hardware and design engineers,” he said.
He aims for the software facility to become the leading software facility in the Philippines, adding that Dyson Philippines will have “specific products developed.”
The software executive also hopes that Dyson’s new location at the First Philippine Industrial Park in Santo Tomas will attract other companies to the area, which he calls the “Silicon Valley of the Philippines.”
When asked what Filipinos have to offer, Dyson Chief Technology Officer John Churchill said, “For me, what we see in the Philippines is the ability to learn… the sheer amount of great communication.”
“We are a global company. We want people who can communicate and also people who have the passion to bring the energy to the team to work as a team,” Churchill added.
He said it was the first time Dyson had wanted to create an office and a production facility in one place.
“For me, it’s magical when we bring manufacturing and design together, because the world of theory intersects with the world of reality,” he said.
Building the Batangas facility could be a risky venture for Dyson, especially with the huge investments it would make to complete the megahub from scratch, amid the global economic situation and engineering layoffs.
But Adriaansen, the software director, explained that the ‘DNA’ of family business Dyson is that they can ‘do a lot of things’ and ‘don’t give up early’.
“The option is: go, go, go for it. The same goes for our products: 75 percent of our products never reach the market – you’ll never see it. The same goes for the campus, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t work. “
