JCB announces £100m investment in headquarters
JCBJCB has announced a £100m investment in its global headquarters in Staffordshire as the company marks its 80th birthday.
The manufacturer's investment in the Rocester site will include the creation of a £60m fully automated powder paint plant as well as a "comprehensive modernisation" of its shop floor.
The company said it demonstrated its "long-term commitment to British industry" and will help to safeguard the more than 8,000 workers it employs in the UK.
Chairman Lord Anthony Bamford said basing JCB in the UK "made business sense".
"The work ethic in our country remains strong, especially in the Midlands with its deep engineering heritage," he said.
To mark the anniversary on Wednesday, a blue plaque will be unveiled at the spot in Uttoxeter where Joseph Cyril Bamford founded JCB in a lock-up garage in 1945.
The company will also be giving its global workforce of more than 19,000 people a day's holiday on Friday.
Josh Blake, a manufacturing engineer at JCB, joined the company as an apprentice in 2016 after training at the company's academy.
He spoke of how JCB had invested in other countries, including the US, in recent years and said he was happy to see the firm continuing to back its UK headquarters.
"I think it's great that it has come to Staffordshire – the heart of where this company started," he told BBC Radio Stoke.
Joseph Cyril Bamford – whose initials form the company name – started the business by using surplus World War II parts and scrap metal.
One of its first vehicles was the JCB all-steel tipping trailer, which was made with wheels and tyres from a Grumman Hellcat fighter aircraft and hubs from a howitzer.
JCB has since gone on to create 22 manufacturing plants across four continents with more than 750 dealers worldwide.
Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
