JCB has won a massive £40 million order for more than 1,000 iconic backhoe loaders in a deal which is designed to help transform parts of rural Brazil.
Brazil’s Ministry of Agrarian Development has signed a tender for the JCB backhoes worth more than £40 million.
The 1,000 machines will be delivered throughout 2013 and put straight to work improving rural roads to ensure food produced for sale gets to market much quicker.
The machines will be manufactured at JCB’s new $100 million factory near in Sao Paulo, opened last September by prime minister David Cameron.
But JCB says the deal will also bring benefits to the company’s UK factories. Transmissions and axles will be supplied by JCB Transmissions in Wrexham and 12,000 hydraulic cylinders by JCB’s World HQ at Rocester in Staffs.
The huge order for the 3C machines comes as the company marks 60-years of backhoe loader production.
The mega-order comes after JCB Brazil successfully supplied more than 1,000 backhoes last year to the same customer as part of the first phase of the development of rural roads.
“This is a very important deal for JCB and we are delighted to have secured the tender for a second year running,” said JCB CEO Alan Blake. “It is huge testament to the quality and versatility of JCB’s backhoe loaders and it’s fantastic to win an order of this size as we celebrate 60 years of backhoe loader production this year.”
JCB Brazil Managing Director Carlos Hernandez said: “We are really pleased we can contribute to the economic development of Brazil, particularly to support the agricultural sector.”
According to JCB, a third of all farms in Brazil are family enterprises in remote areas of the country where the road network needs to be upgraded. The purchase of the machines is to facilitate that development and help meet federal government growth plans.
In Brazil there are more than 400,000 family farms and the machines will be used in more than 1,000 municipalities in small cities with less than 50,000 inhabitants.
As part of the deal JCB will also provide training for machine operators as well as maintenance and technical support.
JCB backhoes are manufactured in the UK, India and Brazil and the company sells the product in 120 different countries. The business unit which manufactures the machines has won seven Queen’s Awards for Enterprise.
