Cracker of a Christmas for JCB employees

Company announces a £500 Christmas bonus for more than 5,500 UK employees

JCB have today announced a £500 Christmas bonus for more than 5,500 UK employees. The payout was announced this morning across at the company’s 11 plants in Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Wrexham.

JCB chief executive officer Graeme Macdonald said: ‘As we entered 2017, global construction equipment markets looked fragile but as the year progressed they have rallied and strengthened in many markets around the world.

‘This year has been a strong one and the whole JCB team has delivered a performance to be proud of. I’m delighted that Lord Bamford has agreed to award a Christmas bonus in 2017 as we look forward with some confidence to the year ahead.’

The Christmas bonus – the biggest since 2012 – comes in a year in which JCB entered a brand new sector with the launch of a range of powered access equipment aimed at grabbing a slice of a market worth $8 billion annually.

JCB is also about to go into production with a brand new and innovative range of site dumpers at their World HQ in Staffordshire, in a move that will create around 70 new jobs over the next 12 months.

This year has also been a year of milestones, including the 40th anniversary of the JCB Loadall, which is the world’s biggest selling telescopic handler. The company also marked the production of its half-millionth engine, just 13 years after the first one went into production.

Among those celebrating the news of the JCB Christmas bonus was Loadall assembly line operative Daniel Proctor, one of 150 agency employees given permanent JCB contracts in the autumn.

Mr Proctor, who has previously served as a private in the Mercian Regiment, said: ‘This has topped off a fantastic year for me. To be given a permanent full-time JCB contract was superb and the bonus is just the icing on the cake.’