From a lock-up garage in Staffordshire to £5.8 billion turnover: 80 years of JCB (and its boss) in 14 stunning photos
Staffordshire-based digger giant JCB is celebrating its 80th birthday with a £100 million investment in its manufacturing capabilities.
And to mark the milestone - as well as its chairman's own 80th birthday - the company is giving its entire workforce a day's paid holiday this week.
The word 'synonymous' is much abused these days, having almost become a lazy shorthand for 'well-known-for'. But the name JCB has unquestionably become synonymous with 'excavator'. Yet its first product was a much simpler affair.
The JCB story began on October 23, 1945, when Joseph Cyril Bamford sold his first product, a trailer he had made out of old air-raid shelters with a secondhand welding kit, on a market near his home.
It was also the day that Bamford's son Anthony was born - and as he prepares to celebrate his 80th birthday tomorrow the now Lord Bamford shows no sign of letting up.
This week he announced a £100 million investment in ultra-modern manufacturing facilities at its global headquarters in Rocester, Staffordshire, saying it demonstrates the company’s long-term commitment to British industry.
The investment will begin immediately, with a £60 million fully automated powder-paint plant and a comprehensive modernisation of its shop floor, with new machining centres, friction welders and cylinder boring machines.
