JCB pays £60m divi to peer

JCB has paid Tory peer Lord Bamford and his family a £60m dividend, according to accounts filed just days after the digger maker announced plans to lay off 400 workers.

Figures for JCB Service, just filed at Companies House, reveal: ‘The directors approved a dividend of £60m during the year, which was paid post year end.’

This was despite a slump in both profit and sales and hundreds of jobs threatened ‘following a rapid deterioration in world construction equipment markets’.

JCB released edited highlights of its figures in May but these more detailed accounts show pre-tax profit fell to £202.2m for the year ending December 31 2014 from £210.9m on sales of £2.5bn. This was down from £2.6bn. The company said: ‘Geopolitical headwinds in each of the BRIC countries [Brazil, Russia, India and China] meant their combined construction equipment market was down 17pc.

‘Conversely, there were brighter market conditions in the US and UK, where the markets were up 13pc and 30pc respectively’.

Despite the disappointing update the Bamfords still took £60m out of the firm after saying in a statement on Monday: ‘The slowdown in recent weeks has been marked, particularly in the emerging markets, resulting in a sharp fall in machine orders.

‘As a result, JCB has today briefed employees that up to 400 staff positions are now at risk in the UK, although it will attempt to minimise the impact by considering voluntary redundancies.’