This story has been updated.
The world’s largest privately owned construction and agricultural equipment maker is expanding to San Antonio with plans to build a 72,000-square-foot facility that could employ more than 1,500 people within five years.
JCB, a Great Britain-based company with locations there, the U.S., India, Brazil and China, will build its second and largest U.S. factory on the city’s South Side, long the home of Toyota and its suppliers. The exact location of the future plant has not been chosen.
Friday’s announcement was made in the garden of the Briscoe Western Art Museum with dozens of local officials and dignitaries attending on what County Judge Peter Sakai called a “lucky day for Bexar County — let’s give it up!”
President and CEO Jenna Saucedo-Herrera of Greater:SATX, the regional economic development partnership that led the effort, called it “the largest single jobs investment in over 20 years” for the area.
President and CEO of JCB North America Richard Fox-Marrs, Mayor Ron Nirenberg, state Rep. John Lujan, Precinct 1 County Commissioner Rebeca Clay-Flores and Councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia (D4) also were on hand.
“San Antonio is already known as a manufacturing powerhouse,” said Nirenberg. “Now, having a brand like JCB wave their flag on our skyline sends a signal to the world that we’re ready to play with anybody.”
Expected economic impact
JCB’s expansion here is estimated to have a $30 billion impact over the next decade, officials said.
JCB North America has experienced “exponential growth” over the past few years, said Fox-Marrs, and it needed more manufacturing capacity in the U.S.
The company is seeking a 400-acre site for its new plant, which will be the second in the U.S.; it began manufacturing in Savannah, Georgia, in 2001. JCB North America already employs 1,000 people.
JCB, which was founded just after World War II and is about to celebrate its 78th birthday, manufactures more than 300 products, said Fox-Marrs. It’s unclear yet which of those products it will manufacture in San Antonio, which he called “a fantastic location.”
“The No. 1 reason why we’re [expanding to San Antonio] is the people,” he said. “Everyone here should be delighted with the leadership” that made the deal happen.
Saucedo-Herrera described economic development as a team sport. “Projects of this size, scale and magnitude require partnership across all levels of government,” as well as private sector investors.
She thanked Texas Transportation Commission Chairman Bruce Bugg and Gov. Greg Abbott, who in a release Friday stated that JCB would receive a Texas Enterprise Fund grant worth nearly $5.7 million.
In her remarks, Clay-Flores said Bexar County would offer the company a 100% tax abatement (not including University Health System and Southwest Independent School District) for 10 years plus a $5 million reimbursable grant for public infrastructure. Nirenberg later said the city would offer economic incentives based on performance.
Rocha-Garcia, whose gold dress matched the JCB skid steer parked in the garden, spoke directly to Fox-Marrs, welcoming JCB in Spanish and emphasizing the city’s “quality of life investments” in education, housing and workforce development. “We invest in each other,” she said.
Lujan (R-San Antonio), who grew up on the South Side, told the crowd he and Sakai used football metaphors to describe the progress of the deal. The team effort “shows the dedication of San Antonio,” said Lujan. “We don’t care about politics. We don’t care about all the petty stuff. What we do is get together.”
Manufacturing presence
Toyota, which since 2003 has invested $4.2 billion in its Southside manufacturing plants, employs 2,600 people and produces the Tundra and the Sequoia. Navistar, a truck manufacturer, opened a 1 million-square-foot facility on the Southside in 2022.
David Marquez, Bexar County’s executive director of economic and community development, said the county created his department in the wake of Toyota’s arrival, and has been focused on growing the county’s advanced manufacturing in the region ever since.
“The missing piece we’re all working on now is the talent, getting people prepared for these kinds of careers,” he said. “Human development is going to be our superpower if we can harness it.”
Officials stressed that San Antonio’s workforce was a selling point for JCB Inc., which will build a fully integrated, housing fabrication, paint and final assembly operation, creating jobs in manufacturing, logistics and transportation.
However, despite “aerospace and manufacturing” being one of Ready to Work’s target industries, thus far only 55 people out of more than 4,000 are in the training pipeline for those industries; another 786 are in training for jobs in “transportation/warehousing.”
The shortage of manufacturing workers has pushed local manufacturers to develop their own training and apprenticeship programs, like Texas Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education, or TX FAME, an umbrella organization of advanced manufacturers that allow companies to use its registered apprenticeship program rather than having to stand up their own.
Ready to Work helps companies expand and create new apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship (generally for high school aged participants) programs, thanks to a $3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor.
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