To mark its 80th birthday, JCB is investing £100m in ‘ultra-modern' manufacturing facilities at its global headquarters in the UK.
The project will see the installation of a fully automated, £60m powder plant at the company's plant in Rocester, Staffordshire, as well as a full modernisation of the shop floor.
Along with its planned HQ refurbishment, JCB also plans to celebrate the milestone by giving the entire 19,000-strong global workforce an additional day's holiday on October 24th.
According to JCB Chairman Anthony Bamford, who also turns 80 the same day as JCB, investing in the company's HQ was an important and logical step for the company. He said: ‘Basing JCB in the UK makes business sense, just as it has always made business sense.
‘It makes perfect sense to invest heavily in our British factories and the £100 million we are investing now will put us at the forefront of our industry. Obviously, we are expanding overseas, not least in America, where we have been for decades. But the UK is our home.
‘We directly employ more than 19,000 people around the world, more than 8,000 of whom are in the UK. And even though around three-quarters of our UK production is exported, we continue to make a huge contribution to this country and to the national economy.'
