JCB announced this week it has won a deal to sell 550 machines worth £16 million (about $25 million) from U.K. rental chain A-Plant, and 494 machines to Fort Mill, S.C.-based Sunbelt Rentals. Both A-Plant and Sunbelt are owned by Ashtead plc. The total transaction value is £36 million (about U.S. $56.3 million).
The deal with A-Plant is part of a phased investment program in which the rental chain has bought 1,089 JCB machines in the past nine months.
The announcement was made at an event where JCB hosted hundreds of rental companies at its world headquarters at Rocester, Staffordshire, U.K.
The order for 550 machines includes more than 400 mini and midi excavators, including JCB 8085 eco midi excavators, which, the maker said, are 27-percent more productive and more than 20-percent more fuel efficient than the model it replaced. The transaction also includes Loadall telescopic handlers and rough-terrain forklifts. The machines will be supplied through dealer Greenshields JCB.
U.K. and Ireland sales director Yvette Jenshall-Bell said the deal shows “huge confidence” in the market. “We are absolutely delighted to have won this business, which cements a relationship going back a number of years,” she noted.
Sunbelt’s purchases included a fleet of almost 400 Loadall telescopic handlers and tracked excavators, in addition to backhoe loaders, Vibromax compaction equipment and rough-terrain forklifts.
Most of the machines will be manufactured at the Rocester plant, as well as JCB Compact Products in Cheadle, Staffordshire; JCB Utility Products, Cheadle and JCB Heavy Products, Uttoxeter. The compaction machines ordered by Sunbelt will be made at JCB Vibromax in Gatersleben, Germany.
The order comes a week after JCB won a £60 million contract for 1,016 backhoe loaders from the Brazilian government. The first 114 units, manufactured by JCB’s factory in Sao Paulo, Brazil, have already been delivered. The machines will be used to improve Brazil’s road infrastructure.
