A JCB all-wheel drive backhoe loader stands on an advertisement stand. Credit: Shutterstock / evakerrigan

British construction-equipment company JCB said Thursday it will double the size of the manufacturing plant it’s developing on San Antonio’s South Side, expanding its footprint from 500,000 square feet to 1 million.

The $500 million facility will start production next year and employ 1,500 people, according to details provided to the Current. Construction on the factory got underway last year.

JCB first announced plans to build an Alamo City plant in 2023 as it looked to expand its North American operations, according to the San Antonio Report. The city and county signed off on subsidies for the company exceeding $30 million,

Word of JCB expanding the scope of its local plant comes a day after President Donald Trump enacted massive tariffs on critical U.S. trading partners, including China, the European Union and the UK.

“In the short term, the imposition of tariffs will have a significant impact on our business,” JCB CEO Graeme Macdonald said in a statement. “However, in the medium term, our planned factory in San Antonio will help to mitigate the impact. We are thankful that the tariff is only 10%, and we can only hope that the UK Government will conclude negotiations on a trade deal in the coming days and weeks.”

Arielle Windham, a PR specialist for Flint Group, which represents JBC, wouldn’t comment on whether the San Antonio expansion was planned prior to Trump’s tariff announcement. However, she did say the company will release more updates on the expansion and how the tariffs might affect JCB’s operations in the coming weeks.

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This article appears in Apr 2-15, 2025.

Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...