SAN ANTONIO – Everything is bigger in Texas, including a groundbreaking ceremony for a new manufacturing facility in San Antonio.
Local and state leaders gathered Tuesday to mark the start of construction of JCB’s 400-acre site on the South Side.
The groundbreaking event was filled with equipment demonstrations, golden shovels and fireworks.
“JCB prides itself on its place of work, and I think what you will see here when this construction is complete in 2026 is a really light, bright and airy environment. A great environment to come to work,” said JCB President and CEO Richard Fox-Marrs. “There’s going to be an opportunity for skilled workers, so this won’t be a general assembly work. This will be an opportunity for people to earn skills and trades that will ultimately provide really good well-paid jobs,”
JCB is the world’s largest privately owned construction, agricultural and industrial equipment manufacturing company that makes different types of equipment, including backhoes, excavators and forklifts.
“JCB is investing in their facility, investing in their workforce and our economic modeling says that it will likely inject about $30 billion in the local economy over the next 10 years,” said Jenna Saucedo-Herrera, President and CEO of Greater: SATX.
The new facility, the company’s second in North America, will be located near Palo Alto Road and South Zarzamora Street.
Fox-Marrs said San Antonio’s location and people made opening a factory here an obvious choice.
“The people in San Antonio have been great. We appreciate the education system. We appreciate the connectivity of San Antonio. Proximity to ports. Proximity to our supply chain,” he said.
JCB offers paid internships in its Savannah, Georgia, facility and they hope to bring those opportunities to San Antonio.
“We are starting to work with the local education system to work on training programs and to bring employees into this factory,” Fox-Marrs said.
Saucedo-Herrera said the South Side factory is already bringing attention to our area and creating opportunities.
“JCB made their decision to move to San Antonio and invest in San Antonio late last year, and since then our international investment and interest has skyrocketed. Not just from the UK, but countries like Germany, South Korea, Japan,” Saucedo-Herrera said.
Fox-Marrs said the manufacturing facility is set to start operations in 2026.