John Smith

One of JCB's first apprentices has marked a double milestone with the company - 50 years' service and his retirement.

John Smith, 65, was just 15 when he first walked through the doors of JCB's world headquarters in Rocester as a craft apprentice on 31 August 1964, one of nine school-leavers recruited that year as part of the first-ever intake of apprentices.

"I'd originally intended going into the Royal Navy and had my application papers ready," says Smith, of Leigh, near Uttoxeter. "But I came home from school one dinnertime and my dad Cecil, who had worked at JCB for five years, told me he had organised an interview at JCB for me and I was to go for that."

Fifty years on and Smith has worked in at least eight different roles, including a position as operations manager with JCB India in Pune for three years. He is one of only five people ever to have reached the 50-year service milestone with JCB, including chairman Lord Bamford.

"Fifty years have flown by", says Smith. "I can't quite believe where the time has gone and it is going to feel quite strange not clocking on for work every day. I have enjoyed every minute of my time here. When I first came to work at JCB, there were a few hundred people working at just one factory and you knew most people.

"The highlight of my career was going to India. I've really enjoyed my job and am grateful for the opportunity to make a good living, travel the world and make so many good friends. I'm a little apprehensive about retirement so after an extended break, I do intend to come back part-time just to keep my hand in."

Smith has worked in the jig and tool department as a design engineer, section leader, design supervisor and chief designer. He was both engineering and business manager at JCB Cab Systems in Rugeley.

When Smith returned to the UK from his job in India in 2007, he took up the role of group manufacturing engineering manager, a post that saw him travel extensively to India, North America and China.

Married with two grown-up children, Uttoxeter-born Smith now plans to finish off the garden at the house he built with his wife Dawn, who also works at JCB. His daughter Tracy Sampson also works at JCB's world HQ.

In 1964, JCB manufactured around 3,000 machines a year and had a turnover of almost EUR9 million (USD11.7 million). Today, the company makes around 70,000 machines annually and last year turned over EUR2.68 billion (USD3.47 billion).

Separately, 19 young people have started their vocational training in four different training professions with attachment maker KAUP GmbH of Aschaffenburg, Germany this month.

KAUP currently provides training for a total of 64 young women and men in roles including industrial sales clerk, industrial mechanic, construction mechanic and technical product designer - machine and system design.