JCB pledges 350 jobs with £31m investment in new engine
EXCAVATOR manufacturer JCB has announced it is to invest £31m in the development of a new engine which could create around 350 jobs across the group.
The programme is set to get underway after the company was awarded £4.5m towards the cost of the scheme from the Government’s Regional Growth Fund (RGF).
Design and research into the new engine project will take place at JCB Power Systems in Foston, Derbyshire, where the company’s world-beating JCB Dieselmax engine is manufactured.
The development of the new engine – which will be installed in JCB’s own products and also sold to third parties – means almost 50 new advanced engineering jobs will be created immediately at JCB Power Systems. The company said today that recruitment was already under way.
The roles include engine design and development engineers, engine electronics and software engineers, quality technicians, manufacturing engineers, applications engineers, supplier development engineers and buyers.
When the engine goes into production, more than 300 additional jobs will be created across JCB’s Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Wrexham factories between 2016 and 2021.
Alan Blake, JCB chief executive, said: “Since we began production in 2004, JCB has led the way in off-highway engine development, with a range of fuel saving, clean and highly efficient engines.
“The announcement that we now intend to invest £31m developing our next generation engine is an important step in building on the success we have enjoyed so far and it will take the efficiency, productivity and environmental performance of our engines to new levels.
“The new JCB engine will give our products a huge competitive edge across global markets which we anticipate will lead to substantially increased sales between 2016 and 2021.”
JCB began manufacturing its Dieselmax engine range at its Derbyshire plant in 2004. This year the company also opened a new engine production facility in India for the production of fuel-efficient engines for its Indian-built products.
JCB’s own engines now power more than 70% of the company’s equipment range. The same engines also powered the JCB Dieselmax car to a new world diesel landspeed record of 350.092mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats in 2006.
The new engine comes after JCB announced last year that it had made one of the biggest investments in its history to develop the off-highway sector’s cleanest engine, in readiness for increasingly stringent emissions legislation in both the United States and in Europe.
The move has led to a surge in demand for the Ecomax T4 engine from original equipment manufacturers around the world.
