Slumping International Demand Leads to JCB Job Cuts

Faced with an international slump in demand, U.K.-based manufacturer JCB will cut 400 jobs in the coming weeks.

Sept. 30, 2015

2 min read

A slump in demand especially in Russia China Brazil and Europe is forcing JCB to cut 400 jobs — A slump in demand, especially in Russia, China, Brazil and Europe, is forcing JCB to cut 400 jobs.

U.K.-based equipment manufacturer JCB said it may cut up to 400 jobs after a 70-percent slump in demand for its equipment in Russia, according to U.K. media reports. JCB also reported a 36-percent decline in orders from Brazil and 47 percent from China. The company also said demand dropped 26 percent in France.

“Market conditions in the construction equipment sector have been difficult for some time, but they have worsened quite rapidly in recent weeks,” said JCB chief executive Graeme Macdonald. “The situation is not about to improve, certainly not in the short term, so we now need to take difficult but decisive actions to align overheads to lower sales forecasts. Regrettably, this will result in up to 400 staff positions becoming redundant across our U.K. businesses.”

JCB has 11 facilities in the U.K., with the majority in Staffordshire.

The company said the jobs will be eliminated within 45 days. The company will seek voluntary retirements first to limit the number of compulsory job losses.

JCB said that even in North America and the U.K., where growth has been strong, conditions have softened because of a fall in market confidence over the summer, prompted by low oil and commodity prices in countries that depend on these resources to drive economic growth.

About the Author

Michael Roth

Editor

Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.