04.12.2008

140 year old plant closes

The curtain came down yesterday on almost 140 years of manufacturing history in Uttoxeter as the final machine to be made at JCB’s Heavy Products factory rolled off the production line.
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JCB staff celebrate the last machine produced in the old plant

The site on the edge of the town has been linked to manufacturing since 1871 when the agricultural machinery manufacturers Bamfords opened for business, the company was liquidated in 1980, then in 1989 JCB bought the site in Pinfold Street and began producing earthmoving equipment there. The last JCB machine off the line yesterday was a 26 tonne JS260 tracked excavator.
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Agricultural producton at the plant in the Bamfords days

The manufacture of tracked and wheeled excavators is now being transferred to the new purpose-built £40 million JCB Heavy Products factory next to the A50 in Uttoxeter.

JCB chairman Sir Anthony Bamford said: “This is the end of an era because my family has been linked to this site since the nineteenth century when Bamfords started manufacturing agricultural machinery. But this is also the start of a new and exciting era not only for JCB’s excavator business but also for Uttoxeter because the relocation offers the opportunity to redevelop and enhance an important area of the town.”

Bamford’s great-grandfather Joseph Bamford was one of five brothers who were the original partners of Bamfords. His own father, the late Joseph Cyril Bamford, was famously fired by the company by his uncle Henry, who sent him a note saying his services were no longer required.

Joseph Cyril Bamford later went on to found JCB, which has grown into one of the world’s most successful construction equipment manufacturers.

The move to the new plant represents an opportunity for JCB to expand its tracked and wheeled excavator business substantially once the global construction markets recover from the current downturn.
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The new JCB Heavy Products plant

Plans for the redevelopment of the 22-acre site in Pinfold Street are also forging ahead after London-based McDowell + Benedetti Architects was chosen as the winner of a contest to devise the scheme’s final design master plan.

The Bamford family has links with Uttoxeter that stretch back nearly 200 years having started a business in the town as blacksmiths in the 1820s.