HRH The Duke of Gloucester is to present JCB with its 23rd Queen's Award at a special ceremony later this month.
It was announced in April that JCB Service was to receive the Award after increasing overseas sales by more than 36 per cent between 2004 and 2006. Now The Duke will visit the JCB World Parts Centre, Uttoxeter, on Thursday, September 25th to formally present the company with the Award in the International Trade category.
During the visit The Duke will tour the World Parts Centre and meet employees before presenting the Award to JCB CEO Matthew Taylor in front of the company's workforce.
Matthew Taylor said: "This visit is a tremendous honour for everyone at JCB Service and is well-deserved recognition of the efforts of all employees in growing exports between 2004 and 2006."
JCB Service provides aftermarket support to JCB's global customers via its dealer network. The company is based at the World Parts Centre and sells parts for the full range of JCB construction and agricultural machines as well as providing field and office-based technical product support for dealers and end users worldwide. JCB dealers provide a 24-hour on-site breakdown service supported by 12 parts warehouses around the world, carrying 150,000 parts for the 290 different JCB products. These facilities are capable of supplying the correct parts within 24 hours to most areas of the world.
The Rocester-based Backhoe Loader business unit also won a Queen's Award this year for export success and was presented with it in June by Staffordshire Lord Lieutenant James Hawley. The latest presentation will mean the JCB Group will hold 23 Queen's Awards since being presented with its first in 1969.