For JCB’s a jolly good fellow – staff to get a day off as firm marks 75 years

In a special video message to the global workforce, JCB chairman Lord Bamford paid tribute to the efforts of employees past and present who have contributed to the success of JCB since it started in a lock-up garage in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, on October 23, 1945.

Lord Bamford said: “As we mark 75 years in business, I know that everything JCB has achieved is due to the hard work and commitment of everyone who works or has worked for JCB in the past.”

The extra day’s holiday will be taken by UK employees on Christmas Eve to extend the traditional festive break.

JCB employs more than more 12,000 people globally.

British and Staffordshire success story JCB - which employs more than more 12,000 people globally - was founded in October 1945 by the late Joseph Cyril Bamford. He used a tiny lock-up garage in the Staffordshire market town of Uttoxeter.

It was the same day as his son Anthony, now Lord Bamford, was born and as Mr Bamford remarked “being presented with a son tended to concentrate the mind and when you were starting at the bottom, there was only one way to go and that was up.”

The foundation for the growth into a global digger giant that was to follow was the manufacture of a tipping trailer made out of war time scrap which today stands proudly in the showroom of JCB’s world headquarters at Rocester

It was produced in his garage and sold for £45 at the town’s market. The buyer’s old cart was also taken in part exchange and Mr Bamford refurbished it and sold for another £45 – achieving the original asking price of the trailer.

Expanding

By 1947 the company was expanding and because Mr Bamford’s landlady also disapproved of his Sunday working, he moved a few miles down the road to a stable block at Crakemarsh Hall, which was owned by a Mrs Julia Cavendish, a survivor of the Titanic disaster. JCB also set on its first ever full-time employee, Arthur Harrison, who became foreman.

By 1950 JCB was on the move again, this time to the site of a former cheese factory in Rocester. Three years later Mr Bamford invented the backhoe loader with the launch of the JCB Mk 1 excavator. It was the first time a single machine had been produced with a hydraulic rear excavator and front mounted shovel. This ingenuity still bears fruit today: JCB has manufactured more than 600,000 backhoes and they are now made on three continents. It was also the year that the famous JCB logo – recognised the world over – was first used on a machine and it was eventually registered as a trademark five years later.

With the launch of a range of new backhoes, by the time the 1960s arrived it was clear this machine was revolutionising the building industry, increasing productivity and reducing reliance on manpower.

It was in 1962 that the JCB Dancing Diggers first took a bow and JCB’s first ever overseas subsidiary in Holland was opened. A year later the JCB 3C backhoe, an acknowledged design classic, was launched. Such was the growing success of the company that in 1964, with sales up by 60 per cent to £8 million, employees shared in a £250,000 bonus. The news made national headlines and payouts were on such a scale that some employees were able to buy their first homes with the bonus they received.

Mr Bamford declared: “I am giving you this money because I want you to share in the success of the company you have helped make.” In the same year, JCB exported its first ever machine to the USA – a JCB 4C backhoe loader.

In 1969 JCB produced a record 4,500 machines and by now was exporting more than half of them. It was in recognition of this export success, that the company received in this year its first ever Queen’s Award – the first of 27 such accolades. It was a year for awards as Mr Bamford became a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in honour of the company’s export achievements.

Turnover

Between 1971 and 1973 turnover doubled to £40 million. In 1975 JCB’s founder retired, telling staff in a farewell message: “Anthony faces the tough job of moving JCB forward through the next decades into a new century. This is a demanding task but he has been well trained for it and is supported by a very strong team from works staff to management. There cannot be any limit to the successes.”

And so a new era had dawned – and one that would see huge expansion of both manufacturing facilities and product ranges and expansion with plants in France, India, America and elsewhere.

It started in 1972 with the opening of JCB France. In 1977 the wraps came off the Loadall telescopic handler, a machine which revolutionised the way loads were handled on both construction sites and on farms. The Loadall has gone on to be one of the most successful products in JCB’s history.

It was the decision to start manufacturing in India in 1979 that heralded a period of global expansion as Anthony Bamford spotted the potential of this market. Today JCB has factories in New Delhi, Pune and Jaipur and India is now JCB’s biggest market behind the UK.

Product innovation continued to be the lifeblood of the company and in 1985 the 3CX Sitemaster backhoe loader was launched and went on to be JCB’s biggest-ever selling backhoe. It’s also the year JCB celebrated the production of its 100,000th backhoe.

In 1987 Britain’s first female Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visited JCB’s World HQ and drove a machine off the production line. Ecstatic crowds greeted her and one member of the public planted a kiss on the cheek of the woman dubbed ‘The Iron Lady’ as she toured the facility.The Queen marked the company's 50th year with a visit in 1995. Prime ministers have been too and in 2009 Prince William marked the production of the 750,000th machine.

In 1995 JCB celenbrated its 50th anniversary with a visit by HM The Queen to its headquarters, where she unveiled a replica of the Uttoxeter garage where Mr Bamford began his business all those years ago.

Future Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair visited in 1996 and helped assemble a 4CX and in 1997 the innovative Teletruk forklift – which can lift and place loads over obstacles – was launched. In 1998 JCB opened its second factory in Wrexham, Wales, and a year later opened JCB Earthmovers in Cheadle, Staffordshire. In 2000 the first machines began rolling off the production line at JCB’s new North American headquarters in Savannah, Georgia.

On March 1st 2001, flags at JCB factories around the world flew at half-mast following news of the death of the company’s Founder Joseph Cyril Bamford.

In 2004 employees gathered at the World HQ for a commemorative photo to mark the production of the 500,000th machine. It had taken just short of 60 years to reach that milestone. The next half million machines would be produced in the next nine years. It was also the year that JCB took the bold step into engine production with the launch of the Dieselmax engine, manufactured at JCB Power Systems in Derbyshire.

In 2009 HRH Prince William followed in his father’s footsteps of 32 years earlier when he toured the company’s headquarters and helped employees celebrate the production of the 750,000th machine.

A national shortage of engineers inspired Lord Bamford establish the JCB Academy in Rocester, Staffordshire in 2010 to train the country’s engineers and business leaders of the future. The facility has been a resounding success with nearly 1,000 students passing through its doors and with every single one going on to employment or further education. JCB also announced a $40 million project to develop a brand new range of skid steer and track loaders to be manufactured at its North American HQ.

In 2015 JCB marked its 70th anniversary with a continued focus on product innovation as the wraps came off the brand new 3CX Compact backhoe loader, a machine 35 per cent smaller than its bigger brother and designed to work on increasingly congested building sites.

In March this year, JCB marked the production of the 750,000th backhoe loader before the world became a very different place as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold. When the company’s production lines fell silent in March, JCB turned its attention to helping those in need during the unprecedented times.

By the time production lines re-opened in June, JCB was also previewing an exciting new development after developing the construction industry’s first ever hydrogen powered excavator as JCB continued to lead the sector on zero and low carbon technologies.