JCB CEO John Patterson.

By Roger Renstrom

Telehandler manufacturer JC Bamford Excavators Ltd (JCB) is launching a mission for its unit in the Americas to unify business tasks and absorb more work.

The company also is changing the unit's leadership team.

From January 1, JCB chief executive John Patterson adds a new title, as chairman of the subsidiary JCB Inc, and Graeme Macdonald becomes president of JCB Inc, which employs 360 people.

JCB intends the senior management appointments as a signal to its dealers in all the Americas that JCB is committed to the western hemisphere market.

The Rocester, UK-based parent firm has assigned Patterson to spend more than half his time developing the group's expansion strategy in the Americas and Asia. It will involve efforts in Pooler, Georgia, in the Savannah area, at JCB Inc, which is adopting JCB Americas as its trade name.

Patterson has gained geographic flexibility through the appointment of Matthew Taylor as JCB's chief operating officer. Taylor has responsibility for day-to-day operations worldwide, except the Americas, and continues as managing director for sales.

JCB Inc president Graeme Macdonald.

Macdonald will assume responsibility for and pursue a functional merger of all JCB Americas operations. Macdonald will succeed Helmet Peters, who is retiring after six years as JCB Americas president.

"The North American market is still the biggest in the world for our industry," said Paul Keogh, JCB Americas vice president of marketing.

On a gradual basis, over two years, JCB Americas will assume support and control functions for the hemisphere's market from JCB headquarters in Rocester.

JCB entered the North American market in the early 1960s, selling UK-made hydraulic tractors and backhoe loaders. In October 1998, JCB broke ground for a USD62 million state-of-the-art 500,000-square-foot (45,000-square-metre) manufacturing facility on 1,064 acres in Georgia. Initial production occurred in January 2000.

In October for the Americas market, JCB began manufacturing three construction-industry models of variable reach rough-terrain forklifts, Loadall 506C, 506C HL and 508C telescopic handlers, in Georgia in a production transfer from the Rocester plant. The Georgia plant also produces backhoe loaders and robot skid steer loaders.

The Georgia operation employs about 300 people and, in reorganising its space, constructed a separate 75,000-square-foot (6750-square-metre) warehouse on the site. Operations in Central America and South America employ 60 persons.

JCB Americas needed the plant space to gear up different production lines, including one for a US Army high-mobility engineered excavator program, which includes a telescopic handler model. "We expect in the new year to go into production on those," Keogh said. "We are now through the final prototype stages and have eight machines out in combat environments." Production is projected over five years. The program is worth about USD140 million.

When awarded in late 2005, the Army Tank-Automotive & Armaments Command contract "was a joint venture between ourselves and head office", Keogh said. Now about 80 per cent of the program is based in Georgia, and JCB Americas has created a division for military products.