Leading manufacturer earthmoving and construction equipment maker JCB India, a fully-owned subsidiary of UK-based J C Bamford Excavators, will consolidate its manufacturing and fabrication of parts meant for its global factories at its new £100-million factory near Vadodara in Gujarat.

The new factory, which was inaugurated by Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday in presence of the Chairman of J C Bamford Excavators, Lord Bamford, will be JCB’s 6th factory in India and will generate jobs for 1,200 people directly and thousands more through its supply chain units. About 50 per cent of the staff will be women.

With the Gujarat factory, the total investment made by JCB in India is estimated at more than £1 billion. Also, one in two of every construction machines sold in India today is made by JCB. The company has a total production capacity of about 50,000 machines a year.

“This new factory is meant for exports. We make components in all other Indian factories such as Jaipur, Pune and Ballabgarh for some global requirements. Those plants will stop making the export components and this new factory will make all of those. We made this decision as there is a proximity to Surat Port, which is modern and about 3 hours from our factory,” Lord Bamford told a select group of journalists here.

India is also an export hub for complete machines of JCB and this year the total exports are expected at more than 14,000 machines. “This will go to many parts of the world including the US and UK,” he said.

Full production in October

The Vadodara factory, which has come up on a 47-acre site, is expected to start full production in October. It will be capable of processing 85,000 tonnes of steel annually.

Bamford indicated that the growth outlook for the company is positive given the immense focus on infrastructure development like no other country in the world. “India is developing rapidly and is getting better and better. This country is an example to the world. Tell me one country in the world, which is developing 30 km of highways every day and that presents a tremendous opportunity to grow in the future,” he added.

Growing demand

JCB’s factories are now running at 65-75 per cent capacity as Deepak Shetty, CEO & Managing Director, JCB India said the company would always invest ahead of demand. “We have now the adequate capacity to meet the demand given government infra push. Despite Covid-related challenges, we continued with our investments and in 2021 we launched the largest number of new products ever launched in a year in India,” he added.

Explaining the potential for new product launches, Shetty said “JCB is the only major company that makes access machines in India. About 70 per cent of the access platforms in India are imported ones. “JCB is not only giving these machines made in India, but also export to other countries. Last year, Jaipur factory-built access platforms were exported to 65 countries, including North America, Europe and UK,” he said.

JCB group had global revenues of about $7 billion in 2021, while India’s revenue was expected at $1.5 billion.

(This correspondent was at Vadodara at the invitation of the company)

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