JCB: a tale of true grit

On the warmest day of the year so far, I was collected from Stafford station and chauffeured through the striking countryside of Staffordshire, to the grand JCB World HQ in Rocester.

The JCB story is one of grit, determination and innovation. The site is a shining testimony to the impressive achievements of a firm that began 68 years ago with one man (Joseph Cyril Bamford) and a garage in Uttoxeter.

Today, JCB has 22 plants on four continents, more than 750 dealers around the world and an 11,000-strong global workforce.

JCB HQ is one of several of the firm’s sites in the UK and features two lakes (complete with ducks); a helipad; cinema; museum; souvenir shop; restaurant (which only serves produce from Lord Bamford’s farm); an innovation centre, and last, but not least, the assembly line of JCB’s famous Backhoe Loader.

My tour began in the museum, where visitors can get to grips with the epic “Story of JCB” from its very beginning. The exhibition displays intriguing photos and machines from JCB’s inception and conveys the incredible innovations and evolutions of each machine to the present day.

After a circuit of the production line I sat down with Tim Burnhope, chief innovation and growth officer at JCB, who explained why innovation is the cornerstone of the firm’s success.

“Joseph Bamford instilled a family culture of never being content,” Burnhope said, “indeed their motto was ‘la jamais contente’ [never satisfied] and this has continued to the present day. We are always looking for ways to better serve our customers. We are a listening company and we are close to our customers and dealers.

“Innovation is the lifeblood of JCB. We don’t acquire many businesses, instead we concentrate on organic growth. We started with one product and we found our markets. And so on. We create new models and take them to more and more new markets, growing the market share rapidly.”

To facilitate such improvements, the Rocester site has a purpose-built innovation centre equipped with a design studio; electrohydraulics lab; a large viewing area; access to 3D printers, and a “powerwall” where engineers can share ideas.

Burnhope told me, “We are not buying innovation, through the JCB Innovation Centre, we are providing the right environment and tools to enable it.”

Burnhope uses the incredible evolution of JCB’s most famous product, the Backhoe Loader, as an example of how JCB keeps reinventing its products. The tractor-like vehicle has a bucket on the front and a hydraulic digger on the back.

“JCB has developed the Backhoe Loader over time to be the best. It has evolved from producing a tractor base, to creating our own chassis product and now a fully integrated JCB engine,” he said.

Burnhope emphasised the importance of overcoming problems communicated by JCB’s customer while still remaining true to the brand. “How do we maintain the JCB DNA while continuing to be better than our competition?” he said.

“Our aim is to overcome the customer’s problems. That’s how we came up with the Hydradig, a compact machine that operates in an urban environment, with a host of attachments.”

So what direction does Burnhope see JCB’s innovation taking?

“We’ve got to look at machines that perform the equivalent of keyhole surgery. Machines that are far more mobile and much better suited to their environment,” he said.

“In the past, for instance, you’d have to buy a big machine to move a lot of earth, but maybe the future is a smaller machine that can move the same amount of earth. We will continue to push the boundaries and think about what is different.”