JCB, the Staffordshire machinery maker, reported sales turnover of £5.7 billion for 2025 and profit before tax of £642 million in a statement published on 28 September 2026. It sold 113,498 machines during the year and said it remained debt-free with no net borrowings. According to the farm machinery magazine profi, JCB’s 2024 figures were £5.8 billion of turnover, £687 million of pre-tax profit and 119,848 machines.

Machine sales were down by around 5%, but turnover remained broadly stable due to a more favourable market and product mix.

Graeme Macdonald, CEO, JCB

Mr Macdonald said JCB faced nil market growth in North America and a 12% market contraction in India, both important markets for the company, but increased its global market share in 2025. He said the overall outlook for 2026 is for moderate growth despite ongoing geopolitical uncertainty. The company did not break down turnover or machine sales by product line or region, and did not report its agricultural machinery business separately.

Investment in Staffordshire and Texas

JCB said it is investing £100 million in the transformation of its Staffordshire headquarters, its home since 1950, when founder Joseph Cyril Bamford moved production into a former cheese factory in Rocester. The programme includes a £60 million fully automated powder paint plant and a modernised shop floor, which the company said will help secure the future of more than 8,000 UK jobs.

In the United States, JCB’s $1 billion factory in San Antonio, Texas, which at one million square feet will be its largest in the world, was due to open the month after the announcement, according to the company. It will build Loadall telescopic handlers and access equipment for North America and is expected to create 1,500 jobs over the next five years.

JCB also said hydrogen-powered machines are now in production after a £100 million programme to develop hydrogen combustion technology. In August its JCB Hydromax vehicle, powered by two production-based hydrogen engines made at its Foston factory in Derbyshire, recorded 406.320mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

Change at the top

George Bamford is to become Joint Chairman of the family company alongside his father, Lord Bamford. JCB said it is the first change at the top of the business in more than 50 years. The statement did not give a date for the appointment. JCB has 23 factories and more than 20,000 employees worldwide.

TAD’s reading

  • For farm machinery dealers: The statement gives no agricultural split, so it says little directly about farm demand. The new Texas capacity for Loadalls is aimed at North America, not at European or Indian customers.
  • For India watchers: A 12% contraction in a market JCB calls important shows how sharply Indian machinery demand can swing, and suppliers to JCB’s Indian operations will be looking for the moderate 2026 growth it expects.
  • For competitors: A debt-free balance sheet lets JCB keep investing in UK production capacity and new engine technology through a year of lower unit sales.
  • For investors and lenders: As a privately owned company JCB discloses only headline figures, so margins and segment trends cannot be checked against listed peers.