JCB wins £40m order to supply backhoes to Brazil
STAFFORDSHIRE excavator manufacturer JCB has won a £40m order from Brazil for more than 1,000 of its iconic backhoe loaders.
Brazil’s Ministry of Agrarian Development has signed a tender for the JCB backhoes, which will be used on various infrastructure projects.
The landmark order for the 3C machines comes as the company marks 60 years of backhoe loader production.
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.
While the machines will be manufactured at JCB’s new $100m factory in Sao Paulo – opened last September by Prime Minister David Cameron – the deal will also bring huge benefits to JCB’s UK factories. Transmissions and axles will be supplied by JCB Transmissions in Wrexham and 12,000 hydraulic cylinders by JCB’s World headquarters at Rocester.
The latest 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.
Alan Blake, JCB CEO, said: “This is a very important deal for JCB and we are delighted to have secured the tender for a second year running. 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.”
Carlos Hernandez, JCB Brazil Managing Director, added: “It is a great honour to have been chosen again to supply another 1,000 backhoes. We are really pleased we can contribute to the economic development of Brazil, particularly to support the agricultural sector.”
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 will help Brazilian authorities meet federal 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.
