A decline in international markets has affected the sales and earnings of Staffordshire-based excavator manufacturer JCB.

Its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation fell to £292 million last year — down from £313 million in 2013 — due to one-off restructuring costs of £11 million. Its revenues declined to £2.51 billion — from £2.68 billion.

JCB chairman Lord Bamford said: “For different reasons, each of the BRIC markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China were sharply down in 2014.

However, the broad spread of our business enabled us to benefit from better conditions in North America, western Europe and particularly the UK.

“Global market uncertainty has continued into 2015, although our home market remains a bright spot. The need for infrastructure in much of the developing world remains acute and will eventually drive a resumption of growth. Our resilient performance in 2014 demonstrates that we are well placed to capitalise on improving trends as they emerge.”