JCB, Britain

JCB has become a household name around the world for its most famous invention, the backhoe loader, the classic digger that has become a very recognisable piece of heavy machinery. First introduced by JCB in 1953, it has become the global brand leader in this product segment and the company’s yellow machines are now a familiar part of the landscape and language. The JCB name even appears in the Oxford English Dictionary and has become one of the world’s best known brands.

 

JCB manufactures over 300 different machines, exporting 75% of its UK-made products to 150 countries. Its product range includes: backhoe loaders; telescopic handlers; tracked and wheeled excavators; wheeled loading shovels; articulated dump trucks; rough terrain fork lifts; skid steer loaders; compaction equipment; and the Teletruk forklift for the industrial sector. The company also manufactures products specifically for the agricultural sector including the unique high-speed Fastrac tractor range with all-round self-levelling suspension.

The company continues to increase the proportion of major parts manufactured in-house, including transmissions, axles, cabs, chassis systems, booms, hydraulic rams and excavator arms. Following a £80 million investment in a new engine factory in Derbyshire, the company has been producing its own diesel engine, the JCB Dieselmax, which is now used to power its UK-made backhoe loaders and telescopic handlers. The JCB Dieselmax engine is also used in a new range of generators, which is a completely new product line for the company. JCB’s international expansion in recent years includes new factories in the USA, India, Brazil and China, as well as new facilities closer to home in the UK, including a new £40 million factory to build tracked and wheeled excavators in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire.

 

Over its 64-year history, JCB has won more than 70 awards for engineering excellence, export, design, marketing, management and its care for the environment. Among them are 23 Queen’s Awards for Enterprise. The most breathtaking achievement in recent years came in August 2006, when two specially-modified versions of the JCB Dieselmax engine were used to power the JCB Dieselmax streamliner car that broke the world land speed record for diesel-powered cars by reaching a speed of 350.092mph - a record that JCB still holds to this day.