British firm Dyson seeks govt nod to set up retail stores

British appliances maker Dyson has sought approval of the government to set up single brand retail stores in India.
It has also demanded relaxation of mandatory local sourcing norms citing its products' are state-of-art, an official said.
As per the current FDI policy, companies making state-of- the-art technology items are exempted from the mandatory local sourcing norms in the single-brand retail sector for up to three years.
After the exemption period, companies would be given five years to comply with the mandatory 30 per cent domestic sourcing norms.
In November last year, the British company had stated that it would be entering Indian market and plans to invest around 150 million British Pounds (Rs 124.32 crore) in next three to five years to set up a retail network here.

The company designs and manufactures vacuum cleaners, hand dryers, bladeless fans and heaters.

"We will invest 150 million British Pounds in next three to five years to open stores and set up retail network here. Our first store would open in the middle of next year, if we are allowed to," Dyson Founder & Chief Engineer Sir James Dyson had said.
Established in 1991, Dyson has filed 7,500 patents for its technology worldwide. It invests 5 million British Pounds each week with over 40 universities to develop early stage technologies.
The company has plans to open stores in major 20 cities in next three years and would focus on mass market.

As per its plan, the company would import units manufactured at Malaysia, Singapore and Philippines and would consider to set up an assembling unit if the volume picks up.
Dyson products are sold in over 75 countries and in 2015, it had a revenue of 1.74 billion British Pounds.