ANSWERING THE CALL: JCB chief innovation and growth officer Tim Burnhope with the ventilator housing prototypes
Dubai — JCB is poised to restart production at a factory closed as a result of the corona virus crisis in order to join the national effort to manufacture ventilators, the company
announced.
JCB received a direct appeal from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson last month to help plug the national ventilator shortage and to help save lives of coronavirus patients. Following the approach, JCB Chairman Lord Bamford promised to help in any way the company could and immediately mobilised a research and engineering team to examine potential ways to assist.
Now JCB is ready to restart production at a factory that has been closed for nearly two weeks as a result of the coronavirus crisis. But instead of making cabs for JCB diggers, the plant is being mobilised to make special steel housings for a brand-new design of ventilator from Dyson. A minimum of 10,000 of the JCB housings are earmarked for manufacture once Dyson receives regulatory approval for its design.
The first prototypes of the housings have been delivered to Dyson after rolling off the production line at JCB’s £50 million Cab Systems factory in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire in the UK, which Boris Johnson visited during the election campaign. Mass production of the housings could start in a matter of days.
Lord Bamford said: “When we were approached by the Prime Minister we were determined, as a British company, to help in any way we could. This project has gone from design to production in just a matter of days and I am delighted that we have been able to deploy the skills of our talented engineering, design and fabrication teams so quickly at a time of national crisis. This is also a global crisis, of course, and we will naturally help with the production of more housings if these ventilators are eventually required by other countries.”
Mohamed Yahya Kazi Meeran, Group CEO of Galadari Brothers, said: “We at Galadari Brothers are proud to be associated with JCB, a legendary brand, with its strong sense of social responsibility. It is commendable how JCB stood up in such times of crisis and dedicated its resources to help offset the demand for ventilators.”
"This project has gone from design to production in just a matter of days and I am delighted that we have been able to deploy the skills of our talented engineering, design and fabrication teams so quickly at a time of national crisis," Lord Bamford, Chairman of JCB
JCB George Bamford arrived in Dubai along with JCB's executive team members including Marco Bersellini, Yvette Henshall-bell, David Lumleywood and Rajbir Sandhu for a visit to the Galadari Brothers Group last week to discuss future growth plans.
JCB is one of the largest multinational corporations specialized in manufacturing equipment for construction and agriculture and has been expanding outside English borders since 1975 under the leadership of Lord Anthony Bamford. JCB and Galadari Brothers Group in the UAE share a 35-year strong relationship with GB Equipment Solutions being the sole distributor of JCB machines in the country.
"JCB and Galadari are family businesses with a long history and we look forward to working together in the future to build on our success and grow our business in the UAE," said Marco Bersellini, Managing Director, JCB.
Once again, GB Equipment Solutions(GBES) has won the 'Dealer of the Year' award during JCB Middle East Conference was held on 5th-6th February 2019 at Le Méridien Hotel & Conference Centre in Dubai.This award is attributed to the outstanding performance and dedication of GBES to serving its JCB customers in the UAE. GB Equipment Solutions has won this award for two consecutive years. JCB Middle East Conference was held on 5th-6th February 2019 at Le Méridien Hotel & Conference Centre in Dubai. While receiving the award Mohammed Yahya Kazi Meeran, Director and Group CEO of Galadari Group said,
The award is a recognition of the hard work and dedication of Team GBES in ensuring market share gains for JCB despite a challenging industry environment. And again, this could only happen with the unconditional support provided by JCB
GB Equipment Solutions participated in the WETEX 2018 and show cased some of its environment friendly machines. Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) organises the Water, Energy, Technology, and Environment Exhibition (WETEX) annually. This event is held under the directives of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and under the patronage of HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Minister of Finance and President of DEWA. The 20th WETEX was held from 23-25 October 2018 at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.
DEWA and GB Equipment Solutions have a longstanding relationship for decades. DEWA is one of the biggest users of JCB Backhoe loader 4CX in the UAE. DEWA trusts JCB as its preferred brand to carry out its utility and maintenance works. GB Equipment Solutions, in solidarity of such a successful relationship with DEWA, decided to participate in the WETEX exhibition 2018. GBES displayed JCB compact machines during the exhibition.
JCB awarded GBES the ‘BEST CUSTOMER SUPPORT’ dealer during the annual JCB top 50 Dealer conference held on 17th October 2018. At the conference JCB invited the 50 top performing JCB dealers from around the globe. JCB dealer conference is a great platform where JCB shares its own plan for the coming years. JCB also showcased a glance of its new upcoming products during the conference
Conference ends with an award ceremony, where JCB UK takes the opportunity to appreciate its high achieving dealers. These awards have various categories based on the dealer’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Last year, GB Equipment Solutions, won the events highest award, ‘Invest in Ambition’. This was due to GBES outstanding growth and investment, made in a span of a year to become the best dealer in the MENA region. Since the beginning of 2018, GBES’s focus has been to increase market share and improve its customer service. Considering that, JCB awarded GBES the ‘BEST CUSTOMER SUPPORT’ award. Apart from this award, JCB also nominated GBES again for Invest in Ambition award due to GBES's consistent high performance.
GB Equipment Solutions has been awarded as the ‘No.1 JCB Attachments Dealer MiddleEast’ for its extraordinary performance on selling JCB Attachments in 2017. GBES parts department achieved almost double the target. Last year, GBES with aggressive marketing campaigns, launched new JCB Jack hammers series, which led to huge sales of the attachment. GBES parts team formulated a new sales strategy in which they focused on the complete range of attachments rather than only selling the ones which were popular in the market. Customer education and machine application was the prime motif behind this strategy. Since 2017, GBES parts team has sold augers, JCB jack hammers, Compact breakers, Sweepers, Planners, forks, crane jibs and many more.
Ahmed Lashin while receiving the award added, JCB has focused on growing attachment sales and has done a great job in adding JCB contractor hammer range in the attachment spectrum. JCB is the only brand which offers 3 years warranty on hydraulic hammers and GBES supports it with its highly trained technical staff. We have never had a claim for warranty on hammers in the past year. JCB hammers fit for all JCB and non JCB machines and customers have been extremely satisfied with the product. GBES offers complete range of JCB hammers which fit 4 to 60 tonnes hydraulic excavators. We have achieved a growth in attachment sales by 100% in the last year and have set the bar for all JCB dealerships in the region.”
