30.09.2018

Strong year for JCB

JCB has reported a 28 percent jump in revenues last year to £3.35 billion. The company also increased unit production by almost 15 percent with earnings increasing by nearly 19 percent.

The company is privately held with a fairly complex set of individual companies and has yet to disclose its full accounts. The company has said that the global market rebound has continued strongly in 2018, with a 21 percent increase over last year. It would have continued to benefit from the low level of Sterling, in terms of making its UK built machines cheaper for overseas buyers, while revenues earnt in markets where it has its own operations such as the USA and India would have translated back into high sterling revenues. The company has also said that global production levels have reached a record level of 500 machines a day.

Chief executive Graeme Macdonald said: “2017 was a very strong year for JCB during which we outpaced the market and set new sales records. While the global market grew by over 21 percent last year, JCB’s sales increased by almost 28 percent. This growth drove demand across all of JCB’s product ranges, in particular for telescopic handlers, where we are now investing in increased global production capacity.”

Vertikal Comment

Without seeing the full results there is not much to comment on here. It is certainly very encouraging to see yet another manufacturer in our sector reporting a strong upturn in sales. JCB has had an excellent year and continues to do very well in the telehandler market. It is now beginning to get a toe hold in the access market, whether underlying revenues have outpaced the market after currency translation factors are taken out remains to be seen.

We hope to be able to report more fully at a later date. In the meantime this is good news for the company and the industry as a whole.