In a small garage in the market town of Staffordshire, England, JCB was founded by Joseph Cyril Bamford on October 23, 1945.
On the same day, his son Anthony, now Lord Bamford, was born. As Bamford said: "With a son, you tend to concentrate. When you start from the bottom, there is only one way to go. It's up."
The first product built in the garage was a dump trailer made from wartime waste, and it now stands proudly in the showroom of JCB's global headquarters.
It was produced in his garage and sold in the town market for £45. The buyer's old cart was also taken away, and Bamford refurbished it and sold it for £45-reaching the original asking price of the trailer.
Within two years, JCB continued to expand. Since the landlady in Bamford disapproved of his work on Sunday, he walked a few miles along the road to a stable block in Clarkmarsh Hall. JCB also hired its first full-time employee, Arthur Harrison, who became the foreman.
By 1950, JCB moved again, this time to a former cheese factory in Rost.
For JCB, 1953 proved to be a crucial year for new products, because with the introduction of the JCB Mk 1 excavator, Bamford invented the backhoe loader. This is the first time that a hydraulic rear excavator and front shovel have been used to produce a machine.
This ingenuity still bears fruit today: JCB has manufactured more than 600,000 backhoes, which are now manufactured on three continents.
With the introduction of a series of new backhoes, by the time the 1960s arrived, it was clear that this machine was revolutionizing the construction industry, increasing productivity and reducing reliance on manpower.
With the advent of the new decade, the company also uses new tools to create business and promote brands.
In 1961, JCB Aviation was established. The company's first aircraft, the twin-engine de Havilland Dove, made its first flight. Now customers from Europe can return to the factory in one day. JCB Aviation is older than many airlines today.
The following year, JCB Dancing Diggers was introduced and JCB's first overseas subsidiary was opened in the Netherlands. A year later, the recognized classic design JCB 3C backhoe was launched. In 1964, the company continued to succeed, sales increased by 60% to 8 million pounds, and employees shared a bonus of 250,000 pounds. The news made national headlines, and the scale of payments was so large that some employees were able to use the bonuses they received to buy their first home.
"I am giving you this money because I want you to share the success of the company you helped build," Bamford said.
In the same year, JCB exported its first machine to the United States, the JCB 4C backhoe loader.
By 1970, JCB began operations in the United States, setting up a base in Baltimore to take advantage of the tremendous growth opportunities provided by North America.
From 1971 to 1973, sales doubled to 40 million pounds. The founder of JCB retired in 1975
"Anthony faces the arduous task of pushing JCB into the new century in the coming decades," Bamford said in his farewell message. "This is a difficult task, but he is well trained and supported by a strong team from staff to management. There are no limits to success."
Under the helm of Anthony Bamford, a new era has arrived—manufacturing facilities and product ranges will be greatly expanded.
In 1977, the Loadall telescopic forklift removed parcels, a machine that revolutionized the way that construction sites and farms move goods. Loadall has become one of the most successful products in JCB history.
The decision to start manufacturing in India in 1979 heralded a period of global expansion as Anthony Bamford discovered the potential of this market. Today, JCB has factories in New Delhi, Pune and Jaipur, and India is now JCB's largest market after the UK.
Product innovation is still the lifeblood of the company. The 3CX Sitemaster backhoe loader was launched in 1985 and became the largest sales backhoe in JCB's history. This is also the year JCB celebrates the production of its 100,000th backhoe.
The JCB GT was launched in 1988, a backhoe that can reach a speed of 160 kilometers per hour. It is an excellent promotional tool that continues to attract people from all over the world.
By 1990, with the introduction of the JCB Fastrac tractor, JCB expanded into new areas-this was the world's first true high-speed full-mounted tractor. This is also the year when Anthony Bamford was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and became Sir Anthony Bamford. He said that this honor "recognized the efforts of the entire JCB team."
With the introduction of the 2CX backhoe loader in 1990, product development continued unabated, and a smaller 1CX was introduced three years later.
In 1994, Joseph Cyril Bamford had a rose named after him. Called'Mr. JCB', the yellow rose appeared at the Chelsea Flower Show under the witness of the Queen.
A year later, as JCB celebrated its 50th anniversary, Queen Elizabeth II visited its world headquarters, where she unveiled a replica of the Uttoxeter garage that Bamford had started many years ago.
In 2000, the first machine started rolling off the production line at JCB's new North American headquarters in Savannah, Georgia.
On March 1, 2001, with the news of the death of the company's founder Joseph Cyril Bamford, the flags of JCB factories all over the world were lowered at half-mast. The British "Financial Times" stated that he has a rare combination of "engineering genius and marketing talent".
In 2004, JCB reached the milestone of producing 500,000 machines. It took nearly 60 years to reach this milestone. The next 500,000 machines will be produced in nine years. In the same year, JCB took a bold step by introducing the Dieselmax engine manufactured by JCB Power Systems in Derbyshire.
In 2005, JCB opened a factory in Pudong, China, and announced the largest order in its history. The order was valued at US$140 million to provide the U.S. Army with high-speed backhoe loaders for military engineering tasks. It is called High Mobile Engineering Excavator (HMEE). In 2006, Jo, the son of Sir Anthony Bamford, became a director of JCB, and the third generation of the Bamford family held this position.
It was in this year that JCB achieved the highest ever sales of 72,000 machines.
Due to the national shortage of engineers, Lord Bamford established the JCB Academy in Rost, Staffordshire in 2010 to train future engineers and business leaders in the country. The facility was a huge success, with nearly 1,000 students passing through its gates, and everyone continued to find employment or continue their studies. JCB also announced a $40 million project to develop a new series of skid steer and crawler loaders, which will be produced at its North American headquarters.
In 2012, the global manufacturing industry expanded to Brazil, and British Prime Minister David Cameron officially opened a new £63 million factory in the State of São Paulo.
In 2013, JCB celebrated its 68th birthday. A new independent economic report showed that the company supported 24,000 jobs in the UK and contributed 545 million pounds to the UK finances.
It was also an important year for JCB Chairman Sir Anthony Bamford, as he became Lord Bamford after being invited by Prime Minister David Cameron to become a Conservative working colleague in the House of Lords.
In 2015, JCB launched the 3CX compact backhoe loader to celebrate its 70th anniversary and continue to focus on product innovation. The machine is 35% smaller than its older brother and is designed to work on increasingly crowded construction sites.
In 2016, JCB celebrated the production of its 200,000th Loadall telescopic handler. It took JCB nearly 30 years to sell the first 100,000 Loadalls, but the next 100,000 only took less than 10 years.
Today, JCB is the world's largest manufacturer of telescopic handlers. This year, JCB also marked the production of its 100,000th mini-excavator and celebrated the 25th anniversary of the production of the revolutionary Fastrac tractor. Also this year, the new JCB Hydradig was launched and won international acclaim.
For JCB, this marks the launch of a series of new JCB power supply access devices after two years of secret development. The company enters a market valued at US$8 billion per year for the first time. This year, the company also celebrated another milestone for Loadall-the 40th anniversary of the start of production. Later this year, JCB marks the production of its 500,000th engine, which is enough to extend from London to Paris.
If 2017 is a milestone year, then 2018 must be an exciting year for product launches, and the unveiling of JCB's first electric excavator leads the trend.
The 19C-1E electric mini excavator was developed in response to customer demand for zero-emission machines that can work indoors, underground, and people in urban areas. Once fully charged, it can put a full normal working day on the construction site.
This year also witnessed the launch of the highly successful X-series crawler excavator series and the start of on-site dump truck manufacturing at Roster’s world headquarters.
By 2019, the new electric mini excavator will be fully put into production at JCB Compact Products in Cheadle, Staffordshire, and the first 50 orders have been delivered to customers. This is also a year of record. In June of the same year, JCB set the Guinness World Record for the fastest tractor.
This tractor, called Fastrac One, reached 103.6 miles per hour, and Guy Martin, a motorcycle racer and truck mechanic, sat in the driver's seat. JCB then embarked on an ambitious plan to break its own record and developed Fastrac Two-it is 10% lighter than its little brother and even more streamlined.
In October, Fastrac 2 reached an astonishing peak speed of 153.771 miles per hour, with an average speed of 135.191 miles per hour.
On the occasion of JCB's 75th anniversary, sad news came in January that the third employee, Bill Hirst, the company hired in 1947, passed away at the age of 86.
In March 2020, JCB marked the production of the 750,000th backhoe loader before the world became very different due to the Covid-19 pandemic. When the company's production line fell silent in March, JCB turned its attention to helping people in need during unprecedented times.
In India and the UK, company chefs have prepared more than 200,000 meals for the people most in need. The Staffordshire production line, which was closed due to the coronavirus crisis, reopened after a national call for action to produce prototypes of special housings for new ventilators.
JCB also reopened its innovation center at Roste’s world headquarters so that employees can voluntarily make medical-grade masks for NHS employees on the company’s 3D rapid prototyping machine.