Local officials took up gold-tinted shovels Tuesday, joining the leaders of one of the world’s largest equipment makers in a groundbreaking ceremony for what some are calling the biggest deal in San Antonio business since Toyota.
The Great Britain-based JCB marked the start of construction on its major manufacturing plant with the traditional turning of dirt, fireworks and a backhoe loader demonstration on its 400-acre site at Palo Alto Road and South Zarzamora Street on the South Side.
San Antonio businessman Graham Weston said the Bamfords are longtime family friends, and Weston called the JCB investment the biggest deal since Toyota. “We don’t know JCB very well in the U.S. but they’re one of the largest companies in the world,” he said. “San Antonio is going to be key to their attack in the U.S. market.”
JCB makes more than 300 types of construction and agricultural equipment in its trademark marigold-yellow, including backhoes, excavators, tractors, skid-steer loaders and forklifts.
“It’s a very exciting milestone in my family’s history,” said Alice Bamford, granddaughter of Joseph Cyril Bamford, who started the family-owned JCB in 1945. The founder’s son, Lord Anthony Bamford, succeeded his father as chairman in 1975.
“We’re not just going to be American-made, we’re going to be Texas-made,” Alice Bamford said. “For the next 80 years we’re writing the next chapters from here in America, where we sell a quarter of our machines from around the world … and it’s going to be a lot more.”
The company operates manufacturing plants in Great Britain, India, Brazil and China, and has its North American headquarters in Savannah, Georgia.
The 720,000-square-foot San Antonio facility will produce lift and access equipment, such as mobile elevating work platforms and telescopic handles. Though the Southside site has been cleared, a general contractor has not been selected for the San Antonio factory.
Manufacturing at the plant is expected to begin in 2026 and its product line could be expanded to include more types of equipment, said Richard Fox-Marrs, president and CEO of JCB.
“At JCB, we always have a long-term vision, we’re always looking to the future,” he said. “And whilst we must start with those two products, this 400-acre site gives us the scope to grow much greater in the future and create real long sustainable opportunity for JCB and for San Antonio.”
JCB jobs in San Antonio
The plant will employ 1,500 workers within five years, jobs that pay an hourly wage of at least $20.54, which is the minimum set by the City of San Antonio as a qualification for economic development incentives. Job openings will be posted to the JCB website.
In April, the City Council approved tax abatements and incentives worth $13.74 million. Bexar County also provided a package valued at roughly $12 million.
Fox-Marrs said the San Antonio plant is the “single biggest investment the company has ever made.” When the company announced its plans in October, it estimated spending $265.7 million by the end of 2028.
On Tuesday, he said, “By the time this facility is completed, we will have invested $500 million.”
Bexar County Commissioner Rebeca Clay-Flores, who represents Precinct 1, where the plant is being built, said the JCB facility represents new resources for the South Side — a “part of the county that has been left behind.”
“JCB being built here is helping to change educational trajectories, because more taxes … in our schools means more funding opportunities like the one I had when I went to [the University of] Oxford,” she said. “But there are still parts of the county that need a lot more work.”
Councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia (D4) attended the event representing Mayor Ron Nirenberg. She said it is estimated JCB will have a $30 billion economic impact on the city over the next decade.
“I’m thrilled to see you here to celebrate our newest manufacturing employer, which I know will have a profound impact on our community,” she said.
Greater:SATX Chief Economic Development Officer Sarah Carabias Rush said the JCB plant is already creating opportunities for suppliers in the South Texas region and in Mexico, which could mean more manufacturing plants setting up operations in San Antonio.
The Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas plant, which opened in 2006, has at least 20 on-site suppliers and is credited with attracting other related manufacturers to the region.
You’re local, we’re local.
If you’d like to read more of our South Side reporting, sign up for our daily newsletters about San Antonio business, arts, culture — and more.
Toyota is currently in talks with local officials regarding economic incentives as it plans a $500 million expansion to its Southside plant.
The British billionaire Lord Bamford also attended the event and reminisced about his ancestors, who were once farmers and blacksmiths. He said Texas feels like home.
“I also enjoyed meeting the great and the good businessmen and politicians and I’m very impressed with their warmth, their approach and honesty about sort of the warts and all, which I think is very good,” he said. “I love that about Texas.”
Lord Bamford added that wherever JCB builds a plant, “we are good neighbors, not only in training, but also in charities.”
