JCB announced this morning a profit of $528 million (£313 million), down 14.2 percent from fiscal year 2012. Sales were down 0.7 percent to $11.6 billion (£6.88 billion). Sales volume was down as well, falling 4 percent from 66,227 machines sold in 2013 as opposed to 69,250 in 2012.
Despite the fall in sales and profit, JCB said it was the third-most profitable year in the company’s history.
“Turnover remained virtually unchanged year-on-year but volume and earnings were adversely affected by a slowdown in emerging markets, notably India, where JCB has a strong presence. This was further compounded by adverse currency movements in some economies,” JCB Chairman Lord Bamford said in a prepared statement.
Bamford noted that increased sales in the UK, Middle East and Africa offset declines in India, Europe and the Far East in 2013.
Bamford says 2014 has gotten off to a “mixed start.” The company has seen stronger demand in the UK and North America, offsetting weaker demand in “the more fragile economies of Asia, Latin America and Russia,” noting that “political uncertainty created by elections in India and Brazil is also having an impact on markets.”
Despite the cause for concern, JCB is confident in its plan to increase production globally. The company’s newest Indian plant, located in Jaipur, will start production later this month. And later this year, the company will begin its $244 million expansion in Staffordshire, England that will build two new factories and create 2,500 new jobs.
