DYSON bosses have boasted business is booming after the majority of production was switched to Malaysia.

The claim comes just days after inventor James Dyson, who heads the Wiltshire firm, was named the richest person in the south west, with his £1.05m fortune putting him at number 39 nationally in the Sunday Times Rich List.

The firm's deputy chairman, Sir Richard Needham, told MPs that 1.45 million extra vacuum cleaners are rolling off production lines after manufacturing was switched to south east Asia three years ago.

Sir Richard's claims will anger the 865 workers whose jobs were axed when the company made the changes at its Malmesbury site.

Nearly all of the company's production now takes place in factories in southern Malaysia, although an estimated 1,200 workers remain employed at

the firm's Malmesbury head office, where research and engineering is still based.

Sir Richard, a former Tory trade minister, admitted to a powerful committee of MPs that labour costs in Wiltshire cannot compete with Malaysia

where some manufacturing workers earn as little as £1.50 per day.

And he said the main reason the company transferred production from Malmesbury was because of a lack of reliable suppliers.

He told the Trade and Industry Committee: "One of the major problems we had in manufacturing in the UK was a real sparsity of efficient, quality subcontractors.

"We were getting parts from Germany, Italy, France, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, wherever and we were just not able to get either the quality or the reliability from our European base.

"Now we are manufacturing in southern Malaysia, 90 per cent of our subcontractors and their subcontractors come from within 90 miles."

The MPs' report, which was published this week, warns that Dyson's survival in Malaysia totally relies on the fortunes of its subcontractors.

"Dyson's position would be untenable if either of its main subcontractors closed down or reneged on the contract, but both subcontractors depended on

on Dyson for a substantial proportion of their business and had made large investments in order to supply Dyson."

The MPs said they had been told the company had benefited from the speed of the Malaysian planning process and the availability land for industrial use.

During his evidence session last year, Sir Richard revealed Dyson would like to return to Europe if the company developed products requiring very sophisticated skills.

Mark Hookham