Staffordshire-based JCB celebrated a major milestone earlier this month, when its 750,000th back-hoe loader rolled off the production line.
The machine was manufactured at the company’s factory in Rocester, where the first JCB back-hoe loader was made almost 70 years ago.
It was in 1953 that the idea of the machine — combining a front shovel and a rear excavator arm for the first time — was conceived by company founder Joseph Cyril Bamford.
In the first full year of production (1954), just 35 of the machines were produced, and it took more than 20 years for the first 50,000 to be made.
JCB (
www.jcb.com) now manufactures back-hoe loaders in the UK, India, Brazil and the USA.
JCB chairman Lord Bamford said: “Some of my earliest childhood memories are of watching our first back-hoe loaders being produced at Rocester, and it is incredible to think that we have now manufactured 750,000.
"What is even more incredible is that the back-hoe remains one of the world’s most popular pieces of construction equipment almost seven decades after the first one was produced.”
The 750,000th model is a special edition of JCB’s latest 3CX back-hoe loader, with a unique livery and a comprehensive specification.
The company’s first back-hoe loader was the JCB Mark I, and the concept went on to change the world, mechanising many jobs that had previously been done by hand.
The product developed rapidly, with the launch of the Hyddra-Diggain 1956.
Both of these early machines came in a blue and red livery; it was only in 1960 that JCB’s signature yellow branding made its first appearance.