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JCB Outlines Global Investments, Big 2010 Revenue Increase

March 31, 2011
After enduring what JCB deputy chairman John Patterson termed “the worst downturn our industry has experienced in 40 years,” JCB reported revenues of $3.2 billion in 2010, at a press conference at the ConExpo show in Las Vegas last week. The revenue was a 45-percent year-over-year increase compared with 2009. JCB sold 51,000 machines in 2010 compared with 36,000 in 2009.

After enduring what JCB deputy chairman John Patterson termed “the worst downturn our industry has experienced in 40 years,” JCB reported revenues of $3.2 billion in 2010, at a press conference at the ConExpo show in Las Vegas last week. The revenue was a 45-percent year-over-year increase compared with 2009. JCB sold 51,000 machines in 2010 compared with 36,000 in 2009.

JCB’s strong results in 2009 were led by the BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China — and much of JCB’s investment in the coming years will be in those countries. In Brazil, where demand grew 47 percent last year, Patterson said, JCB is building a $100 million factory in Brazil to produce excavators and backhoe loaders. The 350,000-square-foot factory is being built in Sorocaba, just a few miles from JCB’s existing factories there. JCB has been producing backhoes in Brazil since 2001 and excavators since 2010.

“The Brazilian market for excavators grew by 65 percent last year,” Patterson said. “Its market for backhoe loaders grew 47 percent.”

JCB sold more than 21,000 machines in India, where JCB has had a strong presence for more than 30 years with four factories. The company invested in an engine production facility in Ballabgarh, Delhi, marking the first time JCB has produced Dieselmax engines outside of its plant in Derbyshire, U.K. The engines are being used in Indian-built JCB products and from now on every JCB backhoe loader in India will be powered by a JCB engine to meet new local emissions legislation.

Patterson said JCB had 80-percent market share in the Chinese hydraulic excavator market and now has 27 dealers with 106 outlets there.

JCB invested $30 million in its global product support structure. The company is about to open a parts warehouse in Prague to serve Central Europe and Poland. It’s the company’s 16th parts warehouse, having recently opened facilities in Fontana, Calif., and Dubai, U.A.E., serving the Middle East and north and east Africa.

The company’s efforts to grow its dealer network in the United States and North America appear to be bearing fruit. Patterson said the company now has 85 dealerships in North America with about 250 outlets, with none also selling competing products.

JCB unveiled at ConExpo the first models of a new range of 16 tracked and wheeled skid-steer loaders, engineered and manufactured at JCB’s North American headquarters in Savannah, Ga., part of a $40 million investment. It also showed its new 512-56 telehandler, which Patterson told RER was designed for the rental market.

“The 512-56 caps off our line of five, high-boom, lift-and-place Loadalls with capacities ranging from 6,000 to 12,000 pounds,” Patterson said. The unit can elevate a maximum load of 12,000 pounds with a maximum lift height of 56 feet.