Lord Bamford said in a 2018 interview: “We are a family business and I’m conscious every single day that I am risking my family’s capital. That is very different from being a normal salaried person who is not risking anything.”
It remains rare in the corporate world for such a significant business to be family owned. JCB’s popular 3CX Sitemaster backhoe loader, launched in 1985, helped make the company a major rival to the likes of US giants Caterpillar and John Deere.
Accounts for JCB Services Ltd, the main division of the JCB empire, show the company paid a £300m dividend to Bamford family interests, up from £250m last year.
The windfall came after the company raised its annual dividend from £5,312 per share to £6,159 per share, according to the accounts.
JCB is now bracing for a sharp downturn this year due to lower levels of manufacturing.
‘More than 230 jobs cut’
Last month The Telegraph reported that the company, which employs about 19,000 globally, had cut more than 230 jobs in the UK since the summer ahead of an anticipated global downturn in manufacturing.
Those affected were agency workers spread across different parts of the business who had been drafted in from an outsourcing specialist.
In a trading update last month, Graeme Macdonald, the JCB chief executive, said:“The full-year market outlook for 2024 is less positive, with challenging conditions in the UK and Europe, particularly in Germany where economic activity has declined sharply during 2024.
“In the UK, housebuilding activity has contracted, which is having a negative impact on machine utilisation.”
JCB declined to comment.