JCB Company

JCB History

In the month of October 1945, Joseph Cyril Bamford founded Joseph Cyril Bamford Excavators Ltd. in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, England. He rented a 3.7 by 4.6 metre lock-up garage (12 by 15 ft). He built his first vehicle, a tipping trailer, using wartime supplies and welding gear he bought used from English Electric for £2-10s (= £2.50). The sides and bottom of the trailer were built from steel sheet salvaged from air raid shelters. On the day Anthony was born, he swiftly erected a new trailer after selling the old one for £45 (plus a farm cart in exchange). He used to manufacture automobiles in Eckersley's coal yard in Uttoxeter. The original trailer and the welding supplies have both been preserved.

In 1948, the company—which at the time had six employees—developed the first hydraulic tipping trailer in Europe. After relocating to an old cheese factory in Rocester in 1950, it kept six employees on staff. A year later, Bamford began applying yellow paint to his items. He developed the first backhoe loader for the business in 1953, the same year that the JCB logo was unveiled. The design was made by Derby Media ad designer Leslie Smith. The business introduced the "hydra-digga" in 1957, a multipurpose machine that combined an excavator and a sizable loader for the benefit of the construction and agriculture industries.

By 1964, JCB had sold over 3,000 3C backhoe loaders. The first 360-degree excavator was introduced the following year with the JCB 7. In 1978, the Loadall device was unveiled. The following year, the corporation started operating in India. The business and Sumitomo of Japan ended their joint venture for the production of excavators in 1998. Two years later, a JCB facility was completed at Pooler, Georgia, which is close to Savannah, Georgia. A factory in Brazil was formally opened the following year.

2005 saw JCB acquire German machinery maker Vibromax. In the same year, it opened a second manufacturing site in Pudong, China. Planning for a new £40 million JCB Heavy Products plant began in 2007 with the launch of a competition for architectural concepts organised by RIBA Competitions. The following year, the business began moving from its previous location in Uttoxeter on Pinfold Street—which had been demolished in 2009—to the new facility close to the A50. In that year, JCB planned to make India its primary industrial hub. Its factory in Ballabgarh, Haryana, was expected to be the biggest backhoe loader production facility on the planet. Following the 2008 financial crisis, JCB laid off 2,000 workers, but it hired up to 200 more in 2010.

In 2013, JCB's fourth manufacturing facility in India began operations.

Three out of every four pieces of construction equipment sold by JCB, according to data from 2014, were sold in India, which also accounted for 17.5% of the company's total income.