JCB has seen profits rise after taking a big hit during lockdown, though management are warning of possible problems ahead as the economy tightens.
The UK digger manufacturer which employs more than 7,500 people at 11 factories in Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Wrexham, said its profits had recovered after tailing off significantly during the pandemic – but warned of an uncertain outlook with general business confidence down, and inflation, interest rates and energy bills on the up.
During the 2021 calendar year the group saw sales of £4.4 billion compared to £3.1 billion in 2020. By comparison, it had global sales of £4.2 billion in 2019, prior to the pandemic. The business said it lost £1 billion of sales “overnight” when the pandemic first hit in March 2020, and it was forced to close its 21 manufacturing plants around the world for two months. It reopened most of its factories in May 2020.
Pre-tax profits fell to £130.1 million in the 2020 lockdown year, but the new figures show they were back up to £501.6 million last year. In 2019 pre-tax profits were £276 million.
Last year the business sold almost 96,000 units compared to less than 75,000 the year before.
The business said its Russia subsidiary stopped manufacturing and selling machines to Russia in March following the invasion of Ukraine.
JCB chief executive Graeme Macdonald said: “The results for 2021 were encouraging but the outlook is less certain for the remainder of 2022 and into next year as we continue to wrestle with supply chain disruption, the geo-political situation caused by the war in Ukraine, record levels of inflation and the looming impact of higher energy prices on our production facilities around the world.”
JCB documents posted on Companies House showed the global construction equipment market grew 13 per cent last year compared to 2020 – although if China was excluded that would have been 23 per cent.
However it said that growth had been impacted by things such as global supply chain hold-ups and shortages of some components.
