U.K.-based JCB, which produces light construction equipment, the Fastrac ag tractor and Loadall telehandlers, broke ground in early June on a new 720,000-square foot factory on a 400-acre site at San Antonio, Texas. The project will cost US$500 million.
It will be the company’s largest North American manufacturing plant, second only in size to its main Rocester, England facility. It will employ about 1,500 workers within five years.
The plant will initially build the brand’s Loadall telescopic handlers. JCB’s Loadall line includes agricultural telehandlers that span the 1,400- to 6,000-kg lift capacity range. The plant will allow for future expansion and the company says it may eventually build other machine types there as well.
Read Also
Farm auctions evolve with the times
The option is still available for farmers who want to sell assets that way, but a U.S. auction firm expanding into Canada notes the number of live, on-farm auctions has drastically declined.
JCB began selling equipment in North America in 1964 and built its first U.S. plant in Savannah, Georgia, 2001. The San Antonio facility will bring the number of assembly plants operated by JCB globally to 22.
“The Loadall telescopic handler is JCB’s biggest selling product in North America and it is also the single largest market for aerial access equipment worldwide,” JCB North America’s CEO Richard Fox-Marrs says. “And therefore, it makes great sense to build these two ranges here.”
