11.07.2013

JCB to open new logistics hub

JCB has announced plans to open a new UK logistics hub next to the A500 in Newcastle-under-Lyme in North Staffordshire. It joins 11 other plants in the UK and a further 11 overseas.

The company has agreed a long-term lease for the environmentally-friendly Blue Planet warehouse in Chatterley Valley and has been conditionally offered a £2.9 million from the UK Regional Growth Fund to support job creation on the site and to provide training programmes. It has also signed an option to purchase an adjacent 7.7 acres of land from Newcastle Borough Council to facilitate future expansion.

The facility will be run by an unnamed logistics partner, but will be branded JCB and will become the central receiving hub for supplier-bought components used in the manufacture and assembly of JCB machines. It will serve JCB’s UK plants as well as its compaction equipment factory in Germany and the company’s manufacturing facility in Brazil.

It will be commissioned this month and by the end of the year will employ around 60 people, with employment expected to rise to more than 300 people once it becomes fully operational over the next two years.

Chief executive Alan Blake said: “Staffordshire is where JCB’s business started nearly 68 years ago and I’m delighted that our latest expansion is creating jobs in the county which has been our home for so long. Staffordshire is a fantastic place to do business and this site offers some huge advantages for JCB, particularly with transport links to the A500 and M6.”
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Alan Blake at JCB's new logistics hub – in the background (L-R)Steve Holland, Neale Clifton, Hugh Chesterton and Gareth Snell with Alan Thomson of JCB, John Taylor and Joannes Van Osta also of JCB

“We are delighted to have been offered funding from the Regional Growth Fund to facilitate future growth on the site. We also thank Newcastle Borough Council for their support in reaching what is another milestone in JCB’s commitment to Staffordshire.”