Dyson hoovers up sales in N America

BRITISH engineering firm Dyson has passed the £1 billion turnover milestone for the first time and is pledging to create 500 skilled jobs in the UK.

In figures due to be released later this year, group founder Sir James Dyson will confirm Dyson saw sales rise by a quarter in 2011, with 30 per cent growth in North America.

The new jobs are expected to be a mixture of engineers – following on from the 200 recruited in the UK last year – as well as accounting and sales posts.

Dyson gets 80 per cent of its revenues from overseas.