JCB Finance, one of the biggest lenders to the construction and agricultural industry in the UK, is celebrating a major lending milestone.
For the first time in its history the amount currently being lent to fund the purchase of machines in the UK has broken through the £1 billion barrier.
JCB Finance provides hire purchase and leasing options for UK business customers and supports the brand’s national dealer network.
It has financed the customer purchase of more than 250,000 JCB machines over the past 49 years.
JCB Finance has lent more than £13 billion to UK businesses since launch, including money loaned for the acquisition of other equipment from non-competing brands.
JCB Finance managing director Paul Jennings said: “To reach £1 billion in balances is an amazing achievement which would not have been accomplished without a huge team effort.
“We are here to help JCB customers buy their equipment and this milestone is a measure of the hard work put in by everyone involved. It’s also a very good indicator that confidence levels in our sector remain resilient and as a measure of our success, it puts JCB Finance amongst the elite in our industry.”
JCB Finance was set up in February 1970 under the name JCB Credit with current JCB chairman Lord Bamford as one of its original directors.
Lord Bamford said: “When JCB Finance was founded in 1970, JCB manufactured just over 4,000 machines and even then there was a very real need from our customers for help with finance.
“The growth of JCB Finance has mirrored the growth of JCB and our success is very much intertwined; JCB’s development and market leadership in the UK over many decades simply would not have been possible without JCB Finance. The team should be very proud of this achievement.”
Set-up as a joint venture between JCB and a national motor finance provider, Astley Industrial Trust, it now is a joint venture company with long-term finance partner The Royal Bank of Scotland.
JCB Finance has a range of financial solutions arrangements across its global business.
In the UK, JCB is listed in 21st place in the annual AF50 published by Asset Finance International and Asset Finance Policy, based on published accounts and the lessor’s net investment in business equipment leasing.
JCB is the world’s third largest construction equipment brand and has 22 plants on four continents, including 11 in the UK. It was founded in 1945 by the late Joseph Cyril Bamford CBE and his son Anthony, now Lord Bamford, who has been chairman since 1975.
