SAN ANTONIO – Another manufacturing boom appears to be on the horizon for San Antonio’s South Side.
JCB, the world’s largest, privately-owned construction equipment manufacturing company, broke ground on its newest North American facility in June 2024.
Company leaders initially announced JCB Texas, located off Palo Alto Road, was going to be 500,000 square feet, but that changed earlier this year when it was announced that they were doubling its size to 1 million square feet.
“Texas is a big piece of our business anyway. A lot of our machines that are built here will stay here,” said Richard Fox-Marrs, the president and CEO of JCB North America.
“Texas is a great place to distribute machines from, so (it was) just a natural evolution of our business to build more and more in the U.S., and Texas is a great place to do it,” he added.
David Carver, the operations director for the San Antonio facility, said JCB Texas will open in October 2026.
“Once this factory is fully operational and we’re working at this first phase capacity, we’ll be building close to 150 machines a day,” Carver said.
JBC Texas will see JCB’s top-selling telehandler coming out the assembly sector. Then it will manufacture scissor lifts and multiple other products.
Officials said they will be hiring to fill 1,500 jobs at JCB Texas.
Carver said they will be looking to employ people with a wide range of skills, highlighting one in particular.
“On site here there’s a big welding shop, so welding is a is a key skill for us.” Carver said. “That’s everything from manually welding to automation and robotics, so some of the more technical welding.”
He said there will be a need for those individuals to staff the facility’s automated paint shop, forklift truck drivers, as well as people that can do seal work.
Carver said there will also be assembly positions and administrative jobs, and the employee profile doesn’t stop there.
“We’ve reached out to lots of the nonprofit organizations, again working with people like Haven, working with Chrysalis Ministries, working with Morgan’s,” Carver said. “Just trying to look at those other areas of employment to give that balanced workforce to fit the needs for San Antonio.”
Staffing and construction for the $500 million facility is not JCB’s only focus. The company is also working to cement itself as a strong community partner in San Antonio.
Last month, JCB partnered with local companies to enter into the Canstruction competition to help the San Antonio Food Bank and to feed the creativity of future architects.
Carver and Fox-Marrs said JCB Texas is working with the whole community as they gear up for a manufacturing boost in San Antonio and across the world.
Officials encourage those interested in applying for a job to visit JCB’s website.
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