Prime Minister Boris Johnson has officially opened JCB's newest factory in India which will create around 1,200 jobs.
The digger-maker - which employs more than 7,500 people across 11 UK factories in Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Wrexham - first began manufacturing in India in 1979, and is now the country's leading producer of construction equipment. Today JCB has six factories in India at locations including Jaipur and Pune.
Mr Johnson recently visited JCB's latest factory in India for the official opening of the £100 million facility, in Vadodara, Gujarat, which will fabricate parts for global production lines.
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Joining the Prime Minister was JCB chairman Lord Bamford, who led JCB's expansion in India in the late 1970s, including the opening of its first factory in Ballabgarh, near Delhi.
Lord Bamford said: "In its first year of full production, JCB India manufactured just 39 machines and by next year will have made a total of half a million.
"This country is now a major engineering power and being here has transformed our business. It has been a fabulous success, with so much more potential for growth. Such progress has only been possible by continued investment and the opening of our new Gujarat facility is an important step in growing our business here and around the world."
JCB India CEO and managing director Deepak Shetty said: "This new facility will create around 1,200 direct jobs when complete and thousands more in the supply chain.
"It will also be a benchmark in the industry on gender diversity and modern technologies in laser cutting, welding and machining. Vadodara is a strategic location for JCB India given its proximity to ports and availability of raw materials and skilled talent. We would like to thank the Government of Gujarat for its phenomenal support with this project."
India has been JCB's biggest market every year since 2007. One in two of every construction machine sold in India today is made by JCB.
The new plant, which is on a 47-acre site, will be capable of processing 85,000 tonnes of steel annually. It will be a gender diverse manufacturing facility employing 50 per cent women. JCB India has also set up a skills centre at the plant where young professionals will be trained to work on diverse job roles in manufacturing.
