George Bamford is to become joint chairman of JCB, taking up the role alongside his father, Lord Bamford, in the first change at the top of the family-owned OEM in more than 50 years.
The appointment comes as the business, which has grown from its Staffordshire roots into one of Britain’s largest privately owned manufacturers with 23 factories and more than 20,000 employees worldwide, sets out a programme of investment across British manufacturing and new production capacity in the US.
At its Staffordshire headquarters, the company’s home since 1950, JCB is spending £100 million on a transformation that includes a £60 million fully automated powder paint plant and a modernised shop floor, work the manufacturer says will help secure more than 8,000 UK jobs.
In the US, JCB’s $1 billion factory in San Antonio, Texas, opens next month. At one million square feet it is the company’s largest plant, creating 1,500 jobs over the next five years, and will build Loadall telescopic handlers and access equipment for the North American market.
The announcement coincides with JCB’s 2025 results. The company reports sales turnover of £5.7 billion, profit before tax of £642 million and machine sales of 113,498 units, and says it remained debt-free with no net borrowings. It adds that it increased its global market share during the year despite flat demand in North America and a 12% market contraction in India.
Hydrogen-powered machines are now in production following a £100 million programme to develop hydrogen combustion technology, which the manufacturer says makes it the first construction equipment company to bring a fully approved hydrogen-fuelled combustion engine to market.
Those engines powered the JCB Hydromax to a land speed record of 406.320mph (653.909km/h) at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, where it was driven by Wing Commander Andy Green. The manufacturer says the run made Hydromax the fastest hydrogen-powered vehicle, more than doubling the previous hydrogen combustion record and beating JCB’s own Dieselmax diesel record set 20 years earlier. Hydromax was powered by two production-based hydrogen engines built at JCB’s factory in Foston, Derbyshire.
Investment also extends to skills with the JCB Academy, set up to address the UK’s engineering skills shortage, receiving 708 applications for 314 places this September. 116 new apprentices, undergraduates and graduates also joined the company this month.
“Last year JCB celebrated its 80th birthday and, as we look ahead, we are investing heavily in the future of the business – from the transformation of our Staffordshire headquarters and pioneering hydrogen technology, to our new factory in Texas. As part of that next chapter, I’m delighted that my son George will become Joint Chairman of JCB. We have never been a company that stands still, and these investments will ensure JCB is well placed to seize the opportunities ahead,” says Lord Bamford, chairman.
“From the day my grandfather founded JCB in 1945, innovation and investment in Great Britain has been at the heart of everything we do. JCB Hydromax showed the world what British engineering can achieve. That same spirit is in every machine we build. While JCB has expanded globally over the years, our home has always been here, and the record investment we are making in our facilities and in new products is good news for Britain and good news for JCB,” says George Bamford.
“While 2025 was a more challenging year with mixed market conditions around the world, JCB delivered a robust performance overall. Machine sales were down by around 5%, but turnover remained broadly stable due to a more favourable market and product mix. Despite nil market growth in North America and a 12% market contraction in India – both important markets for JCB – we increased our global market share during 2025, which is an encouraging result. The overall outlook for 2026 is for moderate growth, despite ongoing geopolitical uncertainty, and with new capacity coming on stream in Texas and Staffordshire we are well placed to take advantage of it,” says Graeme Macdonald, chief executive.
Image: JCB
