JCB Moves Production in Uttoxeter to New £40 Million Factory

The final machine to be made at JCB’s 140-year-old Heavy Products factory in Uttoxeter, U.K., rolled off the production line last week.

The site on the edge of the town has been linked to manufacturing since 1871 when the agricultural machinery makers Bamfords Ltd. opened for business. Bamfords Ltd. went into liquidation in 1980 and in 1989 JCB bought the site and began production of its machines. The last JCB machine to be made there — a 26 tonne JS260 tracked excavator — was produced last week.

Manufacturing 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.

“This is the end of an era because my family has been linked to this site since the nineteenth century when Bamfords Ltd. started manufacturing agricultural machinery,” said JCB chairman Sir Anthony Bamford. “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.”

Sir Anthony’s great-grandfather Joseph Bamford was one of five brothers who were the original partners of Bamfords Ltd. Sir Anthony’s own father, the late Joseph Cyril Bamford, was famously sacked from Bamfords Ltd 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 450,000-square-foot JCB Heavy Products factory represents an opportunity for JCB to grow its tracked and wheeled excavator business substantially once the global construction markets recover from the current downturn. The company’s excavator range consists of machines from seven to 46 tonnes.

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 design contest to devise the scheme’s final design master plan.

Six architectural practices were initially invited to submit proposals for the redevelopment of JCB’s Heavy Products site in Pinfold Street as part of a Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) design contest. Now the London-based McDowell + Benedetti Architects practice has been selected as the winner over Birmingham-based Glenn Howells Architects. Both were invited to the second stage of the competition to produce further design work for the proposed redevelopment of the 22-acre site.

Sir Anthony Bamford instigated the RIBA competition and took a personal involvement in the project to ensure the redevelopment is “of the highest possible standard.”

The Bamford family has links with Uttoxeter stretching back nearly 200 years, starting out in business in the town as blacksmiths in the 1820s. An application for outline planning permission has already been submitted to East Staffordshire Borough Council.