JCB CELEBRATES AS IT SELLS 66,000 MACHINES

On the day JCB was founded by Joseph Cyril Bamford in 1945 his son Anthony was born

Today Anthony, now Lord Bamford, is the company’s chairman

JCB is now one of the world’s top three construction equipment manufacturers

Last year it built 66,011 diggers and other machines and exported about three-quarters of them

The JCB Fastrac 8000 is the fastest tractor in the world with a top speed of 43mph

The industry name for a ‘digger’ is a backhoe loader, first introduced by JCB in 1953 BRITISH digger maker JCB has posted a 34pc rise in profits after it sold an extra 6,167 machines last year.

The family-owned company, whose chairman Lord Anthony Bamford was a prominent supporter of Brexit, earned profits of £287m in 2016.

Turnover rose nearly 12pc to £2.6bn as it sold 66,011 machines – up from 59,844 in 2015.

JCB, which was founded by Bamford’s father Joseph Cyril Bamford in 1945, said the robust performance was achieved despite a 1pc contraction in the global market for con- struction equipment 2016. The company is based in Staffordshire but has 12,000 staff on four continents and sells machinery in 150 countries.

Lord Bamford said: ‘While we face challenges in some parts of the world, the global construction market so far in 2017 is buoyant and is expected to grow further during the remainder of this year.’

The chairman added: ‘We continue to launch innovative new products and enter new sectors which will enable JCB to secure strong levels of growth in the future.’