Excerpt:
Where the current JCB product range is concerned, there are no major omissions in Sir Anthony's view. "There are no obvious product development requirements. There are extensions to existing ranges that may be required. For example, we have just come out with a brand-new range of skid steers made in our plant in Savannah, USA, and there isn't a baby machine. This is an obvious development that we will introduce. Mini excavators are becoming more sophisticated and there is increasing product stratification in the sector so there are developments required there. But I don't see us going into things like draglines or crushers, however."
Currently, the heavy end of the JCB line is its JS460 46 tonne tracked excavator, and there are no current plans to introduce a heavier machine. Sir Anthony says: "You could say that a weakness of JCB is that it does nothing in mining but I prefer to leave that to Caterpillar and the like as they are the experts in the field. It is not our sort of thing and does not fit with our dealers either. There will be bigger models joining our range in time but I am not ambitious for us to make 150 or 200 tonne machines. What I want to do is to make products that our dealers can sell every day of their lives."