" He took the manufacturing away to the far east. " - that's the point "making" vacume cleaners isn't exactly hi-tech. You want the design and marketing and financing in the UK but sticking little bits of plastic together (or watching a robot do it) isn't protecting industry - its investing in a dead end
Regretfully the story of your grandfather is replicated in a branch of our family but a generation earlier in the '30s - too busy gentrifying themselves and took their eye off the ball big time