JCB chairman Anthony Bamford has celebrated sixty years with his family’s firm JCB over the weekend.
Lord Bamford joined the company as an employee in 1964, aged just 18, having previously completed an engineering apprenticeship at Massey Ferguson in France. Over the last 60 years, he has had many career highlights, including establishing the first overseas subsidiary in France in 1969.
In 1979, four years after taking over as chairman from his father, the late Joseph Cyril Bamford CBE, Lord Bamford established JCB’s business in India, which has grown to be the biggest single market for the company’s construction equipment.
Under his tenure, JCB has grown to include eleven factories in the UK, with others in India, North America, Brazil, and China. Turnover when he joined in 1964 was £8.9 million and had risen to £5.7 billion in 2022.
Lord Bamford was also instrumental in setting up the JCB Academy in Rocester, which opened in September 2010. The £22 million school for 13-18 year olds, was established to offer a route for aspiring engineers and business leaders. More than 600 apprentices have graduated since it started offering training for apprentices in 2013.
He was presented the long service award at the company’s headquarters at Rocester by JCB CEO Graeme MacDonald, as well as a gift of an oak tree by company directors.
Lord Bamford said: “It is hard to imagine that I have been here that long, but I really haven’t known anything else. As a family company, I was introduced to the business at a very young age and have been involved in it ever since.
“In fact, my earliest memory was going with my mother to take tea and sandwiches to a handful of men who were working for my father when the business was based in stables at Crakemarsh Hall, near Uttoxeter.
“So much has happened over the past 60 years. When I first worked at JCB, we had one factory. Now there are 22 all over the world employing more than 19,000 people. We were also making around 3,000 machines a year in 1964 and today we manufacture well over 100,000 every year. JCB’s success is very much down to the whole team around the world and, while it’s nice to reflect on the achievements of the past, my focus is very much on what our team can achieve in the future.”
Graeme MacDonald said: “The whole JCB team sends its congratulations to Lord Bamford on what is a momentous milestone. Such an achievement is unprecedented at JCB and almost certainly unmatched in British industry. Lord Bamford’s contribution to JCB and the business world over the past 60 years has been truly remarkable.”