144. Building the South Side — How JCB Is Bringing 1,500 Jobs to San Antonio

Bob Rivard [00:00:03]:
Welcome to Big City, Small Town, the weekly podcast all about San Antonio and the people who make it go and grow. I'm your host, Bob Rivard. Today's guest, David Carver, the operations director for JCB Texas, is here to talk about one of the most exciting economic development and advanced manufacturing stories in San Antonio. It all began in 2023 when British heavy construction machinery manufacturer JCB announced plans to build a new plant here that eventually will employ 1,500 workers at the plant's 400 acre site on the city's south side. JCB already operates one other manufacturing plant in Savannah, Georgia, and it's truly a global company celebrating its 80th birthday this week. As a matter of fact, it has 22 factories around the world, including 11 in the UK and others in India, Brazil and China. David Carver, welcome to Big City, Small Town.

David Carver [00:01:01]:
Hi, Bob. Thank you. Thank you for the invite today.

Bob Rivard [00:01:03]:
We're very happy to have you here and happy to watch you starting to grow in San Antonio. And maybe you can give us an update for a starter. You broke ground on the new facility here in June of last year. So what's happened since June and where are you today?

David Carver [00:01:18]:
Yeah, it's really taking shape now, Bob. I've been here myself personally now in San Antonio for the last 18 months right at the start of the project. Project. It's, it's been great to see a, you know, a green field just grow up into, into the building it is today. The two main structures of the facility are up the assembly building and the paint and manufacturing building. And they're just starting to clad out that building today. And they, you know, the view is that we're on target to open a factory in the last quarter of next year, 2026.

Bob Rivard [00:01:46]:
All right, that's great. We can tell from your accent that you weren't born here in San Antonio. How are you getting along so far after 18 months here? It must be quite a change from. Were you in London?

David Carver [00:01:58]:
I come from Birmingham, so the Midlands area of England.

Bob Rivard [00:02:01]:
Okay.

David Carver [00:02:02]:
Yeah. Really enjoying it here in San Antonio. I'm East Texan, so very East Texan. Loving the weather. Anybody from England loves the weather? All the locals tell us it's too hot, but everybody from England's just like, no, just don't say that word. We're all loving it. So, yeah, it's a great place, San Antonio. Everybody's been really welcoming to us since we've been here for the last 18 months, really helping the factory project and also to look after the families as well.

David Carver [00:02:27]:
And people that have joined us.

Bob Rivard [00:02:29]:
So how many people are on the payroll at this point?

David Carver [00:02:31]:
So we've got 24 people currently on the payroll, Bob. There are five of us from the UK, so myself and four others, we have two people who have transferred over from the site in Savannah in Georgia and the rest have been local hires and we've had some really great local hires to date.

Bob Rivard [00:02:47]:
24 to 1500 is a lot of work ahead of you. What's the timeline for that? And if we have people listening that are interested in employing employment opportunities out there, or they might have a son or daughter or a neighbor interested, what are you looking for and when will you be hiring?

David Carver [00:03:04]:
Yeah, I always tell people that JCB is a really great employer and I say that with some history because I've been in JCB now for 20 years. It's my 20th, 20th year. JCB is looking for really a wide range of people. Anybody that's really looking for a long term career with a great attitude. Myself personally, I started in JCB at shop floor level and I worked my way up through the business. That's not unusual, Bob, for people in JCB to do that and in manufacturing, I think in general it's been a really great career path for people to do that in the business. Yeah. So 20 years myself in the business.

David Carver [00:03:39]:
We're looking for people from San Antonio to work in San Antonio. As you've said, 1500 jobs. We're looking for everything from forklift truck drivers. We'll be looking for welders, assemblers, painters, office staff, people to work in a global production supply environment. Some really great opportunities. And if anybody is looking, and I'll probably say this few times across the podcast and we have a website which is jcbna.com so jcbna.com and all the latest vacancies are posted on there. All right.

Bob Rivard [00:04:10]:
Your company has a very distinct culture. I've had the opportunity to get to know a little bit more about it because there's a family connection between Graham Weston, a very prominent entrepreneur and developer here in San Antonio, and the Bamford family. Lord Bamford. Those are actually his initials, aren't they? JCB for the company. And it's, it's very much got a family tone to it, but also a real emphasis on education. I've seen the videos on the JCB Academy that was started outside London and that others, including Graham, are looking to model here where you're, you basically have a, a technology school that's very specific about taking people at a pretty early age and integrating them into the process that will prepare them for, you know, the kind of work that, that, that you do at your factories around the world.

David Carver [00:05:00]:
So, yes, Bob, you mentioned Graham Weston. And just to talk about Graham as a, as a person, you know, Graham's been a really great help to us here in San Antonio. You know, we've only got to pick the phone up to Graham and anything that we need, he's really supportive. Yeah. You also mentioned the JCB Academy back in the UK and, and where the JCB main headquarters is in, in Roaster in England. In the JCB Academy, there's hundreds of students which all have a real focus on that manufacturing pathway. So ourselves as an employer, jcb, but other big employers such as people like Rolls Royce, Aston Martin, Toyota, you know, all send people to this school with a real safe pathway to trying to get people into that manufacturing environment and really focus on, on manufacturing.

Bob Rivard [00:05:43]:
Well, that's great. So what's, what's the timeline for hiring the 1500 people? You want to open by the fourth quarter of 2026, and then you'll be actually manufacturing heavy duty equipment, construction equipment from day one. When will something roll off the assembly line? And I assume that means you're going to have to front load a lot of hiring between now and let's say early to mid-2026 to train people and get them organized and cohesively working as a team.

David Carver [00:06:13]:
Yeah, and it's, it's a really great challenge to have 1500 people, as you say, a lot of people. And you know that that horror will probably take place over the next two or three years to get us up to that full volume. The first product that we're building is a Telehandler currently manufactured in the uk. Great thing about that is that the product exists, the process exists today. So it's a great place to send people to try.

Bob Rivard [00:06:34]:
And what kind of handler, please.

David Carver [00:06:36]:
A telehandler. So that model that's on your, on your desk there.

Bob Rivard [00:06:39]:
Oh, that, that looks to me like a front loader. Maybe there's a language gap here.

David Carver [00:06:46]:
You probably have a few language gaps on this podcast today, but that's okay. But that gives us a great opportunity for training. We recruited a manufacturing engineer here already, for example, a really great local hire, and we sent him back the UK to work with that team, the manufacturing engineering team. He was there for six months, spent a lot of time with that team, got himself a good network of people. So he has a great team behind him now to support him as and when we get into, into that volume production stage. And I think that model, you know, we'll start to develop that model maybe with people going into Savannah and other factories within jcb.

Bob Rivard [00:07:18]:
How did you guys come to pick the south side? It's an economically depressed part of San Antonio, so we're delighted to see jobs go there. Of course, in 2008, the Toyota Manufacturing plant opened up there and that was a game changer. And we've since then seen Texas A M, San Antonio University open up there. Quite a bit of investment in the San Antonio river and in the former military bases Port San Antonio and Brooks. But I guess you needed 400 acres. There aren't very many places in the county you can find 400 acres worth of greenfield space.

David Carver [00:07:52]:
First thing is I am a Southsider, so first moved into San Antonio on the north side. I currently live in Almondorf.

Bob Rivard [00:07:58]:
Okay.

David Carver [00:08:00]:
The south side. By the way, I think the, the people the area is great. I love cycling, I love running. So gives you a great break from that city environment. Why the south side? You should say 400 acres is a big, a big piece of land to find. It's great being near some of the other manufacturing sites. So again in the uk, our roaster site's very near to Toyota, very near to some of the other big manufacturers such as Rolls Royce. It's great to be again on the south side.

David Carver [00:08:26]:
Need to great employers like Toyota and you know, keep that manufacturing all in, all in the one space.

Bob Rivard [00:08:32]:
When you look at the growing advanced manufacturing economy in San Antonio, there's only so many skilled workers that are here and of course every company attracts more. But will you be collaborating or competing with the. The Toyotas and the Boeings and the aerospace? Other companies at Port San Antonio would be hiring from those companies or will they be looking at you as a potential source of talent?

David Carver [00:08:54]:
I think everybody will look and say that lots of people are going to be recruiting at the same time. What I would say about other manufacturers is there's definitely a good collaboration already here within San Antonio. So we meet regularly as JCB with, you know, other players such as Toyota, heb, other manufacturers. It hasn't got a feeling of competition. I'm sure the timeline will lead. We'll be advertising for jobs at the same time. It will bring natural competition, but it doesn't feel like competition. It generally feels like a team working together to create a total number of jobs and get people interested in manufacturing.

Bob Rivard [00:09:28]:
And what kind of wages will JCB be paying, David?

David Carver [00:09:32]:
So again, you know, we're just over 12 months away from opening the factory. We've not decided on a, on a full figure. The commitment from JCB is a minimum wage. That was, that was a minimum wage target that was given to us as part of coming into San Antonio. And I think off the top of my head, that was something like $20. 58 as a minimum. But you know, we'll be paying a relative wide for the, for the jobs in the area.

Bob Rivard [00:09:55]:
That's exciting. Why don't you talk a little bit about what it is that you actually manufacture around the world and what you're going to manufacture here. I think I'm typical of San Antonio's David. I didn't know who JCB was once I learned. It seems like every time I pass a construction site, those marigold colored machines all have JCB on them. And I've just never noticed the, the logo.

David Carver [00:10:19]:
Yeah, when you mentioned the logo, Bob. And JCB stands for our founder, Joseph Cyril Bamford. That's where the initials come from. And bright yellow machines are ours. And I would say we need more of those bright yellow machines on some of those construction sites. And that's one of the reasons for us building the factory here in San Antonio. To build machines for the U.S. in the U.S.

David Carver [00:10:39]:
we manufacture construction agricultural equipment and we manufacture those across the globe. And again, we try to manufacture and sell where we're building. And that's been our strategy. It's a customer centric business. So we, we manufacture for customers. We like customers to see where their machines are being manufactured. And again, this will be a great site for our, you know, local customers to come to and see, test and watch their machines being built.

Bob Rivard [00:11:03]:
How do you retail your equipment?

David Carver [00:11:06]:
Two main avenues for our equipment we, we sell to through dealerships. So we sell through dealerships. And again, that dealership network will need.

Bob Rivard [00:11:13]:
To grow along with a JCB dealership or is that a broad dealership that's representing various brands and no, it generally.

David Carver [00:11:20]:
Tends to be a JCB dealership. So again, here in San Antonio we have a great, great dealership boss. JCB is our dealer. They're on.

Bob Rivard [00:11:28]:
Where's that located?

David Carver [00:11:29]:
They're on the 410.

Bob Rivard [00:11:30]:
Okay.

David Carver [00:11:30]:
They're a great dealer. Again, they work really well with us in terms of, you know, trying to stand up this factory. They support us with equipment for career fairs and you know, showing off equipment that exists today.

Bob Rivard [00:11:40]:
Well, they have to be very happy that you're in town now.

David Carver [00:11:42]:
We hope so.

Bob Rivard [00:11:43]:
It's going to raise their profile demonstrably. And people like Myself are going to have to go out there and kick the tires and take a look. But you, you talk about your equipment. I would call all of your equipment heavy duty equipment. It's not small, light equipment. You're building big machines.

David Carver [00:11:59]:
Yeah, we make compact equipment as well or we make, you know, smaller compact equipment. Skid steers, mini excavators. We make large excavators as well. Quite a range. Over 400 different products in our portfolio. And as I said earlier, it's a very customer centric product range. So if a customer desires something then JCB's got a great engineering background to, you know, to try and modify and design things to suit our customer base.

Bob Rivard [00:12:24]:
So you're going to be. And here you have one of the, I think there's two products you've identified that you're going to build here.

David Carver [00:12:30]:
Yeah. So here in, here in San Antonio, the products that we're starting with is the telehandler. So we'll start that in the last quarter of next year and then we're looking to move on to access equipment. So things like scissor lifts and boom platform lifts. But again the factory is going to be quite flexible. So as the range grows or as the markets change, then we'll have flexibility within the factory to pivot. All right.

Bob Rivard [00:12:53]:
I wonder, David, if San Antonio was selected in part because the company either has a footprint in Mexico or wants to develop one, would you. Is there an export, is there an export element to this?

David Carver [00:13:06]:
Our strategy, Bob, since we started, is really to do everything local. So really starting in San Antonio and then push outwards. In terms of our strategy, we're looking for local suppliers, we're looking for people that are local first and then we're pushing that out across the rest of the US we do today, we do purchase things from India for example. Mexico is an ideal place to do some of that low cost sourcing from instead of India more local because again it can be transported easily.

Bob Rivard [00:13:33]:
Well, you mentioned local suppliers. Anyone who's been out to the Toyota factory complex sees that it's surrounded by its supplier industry, that many companies either located or expanded here to sort of give Toyota that just in time, inventory capacity. Will you attract local suppliers here? Does JCB operate in the same sort of satellite network that we've seen from Toyota?

David Carver [00:13:58]:
Yeah, we've got existing suppliers already that are looking to relocate to San Antonio to be part of, you know, to stay with JCB and provide a local service. We've met with some of those great local suppliers of Toyota people Like Toyotetsu, former Avans are absolutely fantastic businesses. And the way that they set up their businesses is great. Again, we're learning from what they did with Toyota and how that model was formed. We have that opportunity on the site. As you say, 400 acres is big. The first phase that we're building is 84 acres. To put into context, there's lots of different opportunities, including bringing more manufacturing than we're planning today onto that site.

Bob Rivard [00:14:38]:
I think that matters because it means the total job count is going to be higher than your official 1500 employees at JCB, but there'll be a number of other quality jobs that, that add to the mix surrounding that.

David Carver [00:14:51]:
Yeah. I think generally JCB as a business for every job that we employ tends to be six jobs in the supply chain. Wow. To support that. So.

Bob Rivard [00:15:00]:
Well, let's talk about politics for just a minute. David, even if that's not your area of responsibility, is JCB here in part because of the tariff policies of the Trump administration? You couldn't have anticipated those back in 2023. But does that change the equation for JCB in terms of what you manufacture around the globe that might be imported into the US versus what you're going to manufacture here, and it's made on U.S. soil?

David Carver [00:15:28]:
We're already on this trajectory for JCB. Sure. JCB was already looking to manufacture products built in the US in the US So for us, that piece hasn't changed. We just need to do it quicker and we just need to try and get this factory open as soon as we can. I think the business has already gone on record to say in the short term, tariffs are a disruption. You know, they're, they're a short term problem. But for the long term, the strategy that JCB employed before the tariffs were introduced is definitely the right strategy. And, you know, we're not moved from that at all.

Bob Rivard [00:15:58]:
All right, I want you to talk a little bit about what it's going to be like, daily life inside the plant. And probably most of our audience members have never worked in an advanced manufacturing plant. I had the opportunity, if that's the right word, to work in the largest livestock slaughterhouse in the United States. Back in my college days and actually learned that a plant is like a symphony. It's an amazing operation and organism with hundreds or even more than a thousand people, all contributing little elements to something grander that's happening. And I wonder, have you ever built and run a plant before? Is this going to be your first time? Or tell me about your background with jcb and yeah, how prepared you are for what's coming.

David Carver [00:16:41]:
First of all, JCB is a family business and it's like one big massive family to work in, Bob. And you know, just to answer your question, people are going to love to work in JCB and you know, we want to throw that opportunity home to everybody within San Antonio. To do that for myself personally, 20 year career within JCB. Wouldn't want to work anywhere else. Love the place. Absolutely love working for jcb. Love the family. The family are very ingrained in what goes on within jcb.

David Carver [00:17:08]:
They know the details behind people, they get to know people. Great example of that. Chairman Lord Bamford has been in town a few times. Every time he comes we have a breakfast with new employees where he introduces himself and gets them to talk about their families. And you know, that family is just growing. It's getting a bigger family every year. But it's fantastic. In 20 years I've done a few different jobs.

Bob Rivard [00:17:31]:
Did you start out as a young man on the plant floor somewhere in the uk?

David Carver [00:17:35]:
I'm still a young man by the way.

Bob Rivard [00:17:37]:
You are compared to me.

David Carver [00:17:38]:
I started out, as you say, on the shop floor working in the small press and laser manufacturing area. And then I've really just worked hard, tried to show a good attitude, tried to do the best at every single job. I've worked my way up through to running businesses. So I ran the business that I was first employed in that makes the cabins where the operators sit in. That was a really great opportunity. And then I was lucky enough to go and talk to Lord Bamford one day to say that the growth of the business was such that we needed to build a new factory. I think at that point in time, while I was looking for who that was going to be, he was going to build us that factory and again had a really great mentoring and opportunity from Lord Bamford and the team to build that factory. So we transitioned that cab factory into a brand new facility within the uk.

David Carver [00:18:26]:
At that point in time it was the largest investment. It obviously went well because I'm here now in San Antonio doing it again. So I think that was great. But from that cab factory I've run a number of different businesses, done different roles within the businesses, run the excavator business, the genset business, and also did a 12 month stint in HR, working again in the operations side of HR for the uk. What makes JCB stand out, I think as a business and as an employer is in jcp anybody could be anything and you know, we again we're really lucky to get invited to many different events here in San Antonio in Palo Alto College. I remember saying to one of the students, you know, you could run this factory one day. You know, today you might come in and be a wildair or an assembler. But you know, there's no reason in JCB why you couldn't aspire to be running that top job you have, David.

Bob Rivard [00:19:16]:
Kind of an inside, outside job. Because on the one hand you're building a plant, there's going to have to be a workforce hired and trained. On the other hand, you're the ambassador for the company and you and I met at an event some months ago and you just mentioned going to Palo Alto. So you're, you're out there representing JCB too in the, in the community and that, that's a very different kind of work and responsibility than, than building heavy duty machinery.

David Carver [00:19:42]:
I think it's an easy job. I think when you, when you've got a job that you really enjoy and you know, it becomes natural to talk about the business and how it's developed my career, my family and then also how that does the same thing for other people within jcb. It's not a hard thing to do. It's a great, in fact it's a great opportunity to tell the story. We need people, as you say, to buy those yellow diggers and equipment and we need people to buy more. The more we sell, the bigger we can grow that site in San Antonio. So I urge everybody when they look at a building site, if they don't see a bright yellow JCB digger, then you know, stop and tell somebody and you know, because that's the future, that's what we want to do here.

Bob Rivard [00:20:20]:
Well, that's a great place to finish, David. I hope you'll invite big city, small town out to the ribbon cutting when that first machine is ready to roll off the line.

David Carver [00:20:28]:
Love to Bob. Love to. Thank you for today and thank you for, and if I just close with 1500 jobs. If anybody is genuinely interested in working for JCB and we really need, need you all, there is nobody that, that should think that they can't work at jcb. Many people have worked their way up from that shop floor and started at entry level jobs. JCBNA.com that's the website. Please look at it.

Bob Rivard [00:20:50]:
They'll be, they'll be able to go to your, your company's website and easily find the San Antonio recruiting component.

David Carver [00:20:57]:
Yes.

Bob Rivard [00:20:58]:
All right. David Carver, jcb. Thanks for coming in.

David Carver [00:21:02]:
Thank you, Bob.

Bob Rivard [00:21:06]:
As we approach this podcast's 150th episode. Later this year, we'll be adding some new sponsors that reflect the robust growth we've enjoyed this year after welcoming producer and co host Corey Ames to our enterprise, launching our YouTube channel and our weekly Monday Musings newsletter. If you do not yet subscribe to my free digital commentary, I hope you'll do so now by going to our Big City Small Town website and clicking on newsletters. The local media presence in San Antonio has been steadily shrinking since 2007. Believe me, I've experienced it personally, first as the Executive editor at the San Antonio express news from 1997 to 2011, and then as we launched the Rivard Report in 2012, where I worked until 2022. If your company or organization would like to consider supporting our local journalism and programming as a sponsor, please drop me a line via social media or to my email@robertjrevardmail.com thank you. Thanks for joining us for this episode of Big City Small Town. Please share this episode with friends and colleagues, and if you haven't already, sign up for Monday Musings, my weekly newsletter.

Bob Rivard [00:22:16]:
Just go to bigcity small town.com and add your email. Big City Small Town is brought to you by Western Urban Building a city our children want to call home, and by Geekdom, where startups are born and smart ideas become businesses. Thanks to Corey Ames of Ensemble, Texas for the production of this show. We will see you next week.