Record-breaking year for JCB

JCB say 2006 was their most successful year ever, with new records set for pre-tax profits, turnover, machine sales and global market share.

The company's pre-tax profits rose to £149 million, an increase of 35% compared with 2005, while turnover grew to £1.75 billion, up from £1.42 billion a year earlier. Meanwhile, machine sales rose to over 55,000 units, up from 45,000 in 2005, and JCB’s world market share increased to 10.4% from 9.6%.

In 2006 the company also climbed one place to become the world’s third largest construction equipment manufacturer by volume, while global recruitment increased dramatically during the year with more than 1,250 new employees joining JCB, taking the company’s total workforce to around 8,000.

JCB’s managing director and CEO, John Patterson, said: ‘In the last three years JCB has become a truly global manufacturer with the investment of over £120 million in new factories in India, China and Germany. In that time the number of JCB machines manufactured has increased by 85%.

‘The investment in manufacturing capacity has been one of the drivers of our growth along with innovation, the continuous development of new products and a strategy of increasing our focus on emerging markets where the potential for growth is enormous.

‘When combined with the overall growth of the market and the continued growth in our mature markets, all these factors contributed to a successful 2006 and ensure the building blocks are in place to take us to new heights in 2007.’