New JCB dealer brings more machines and stronger support

JCB and Adaptalift launched their new partnership at Adaptalift's new Truganina facility in Melbourne yesterday, marking the first time the manufacturer's complete equipment range has been sold and supported under a single Australian dealer network.

The move replaces a single independent importer model, which had represented JCB in Australia for decades, with an appointed national dealer network.

The partnership marks Adaptalift's first entry into the construction equipment sector, pairing decades of experience in materials handling with JCB's product range.

“Adaptalift had been a materials handling business for many decades,” said David Brunt, executive general manager for Adaptalift JCB.

“For some time we’d been looking for a construction equipment partner so that we could move into that space. We already have an established network of branches and support across the country, but finding the right OEM to work with is really important.

"The opportunity came across our table last year to partner with JCB in Australia, and we decided to seize that opportunity.”

Jose Luis Gonçalves, JCB’s director of international sales, said the manufacturer had spent the year building a dedicated local subsidiary. “JCB wanted to invest in Australia,” he said. “Since the beginning of the year, we have been putting JCB Australia together – bringing machines and working with the dealers, putting a team together on sales, aftersales, parts, service and dealer support, to really ensure that we take the brand to a whole new level.”

Gonçalves said the choice of Adaptalift came down to its ability to back up the sale with ongoing service. “That’s exactly why we see (Adaptalift) as the right fit for JCB in Australia, not only delivering the machines and technology but at the same time proper support and response to the customers in their day-to-day tasks.”

For local customers, the appointment brings a significantly expanded support footprint. Adaptalift JCB operates 15 branches and 26 service locations across the country, with 175 field service technicians and a further 60 to 70 staff based in workshops, backed by a national parts distribution network.

“We pride ourselves on our aftersales support,” Brunt said. “We’re not just about selling the equipment – obviously that’s a very important thing for us to do – but really it’s about the aftersales support that we aim to deliver to our customers.”

Brunt said that long-term support, rather than the initial sale, was the business’s clearest point of difference.

“We’ve worked really hard and invested a huge amount of time and effort over the last few years to build a network of technicians and parts supply that enables us to support our customers not just the day after they buy the equipment, but two, three, five and ten years after they purchased it. We’re still there to support them.”

Adaptalift JCB is bringing the manufacturer’s complete equipment line-up to Australia, spanning compact equipment, skid steers and mini excavators through to large tracked and wheeled excavators, wheel loaders, telehandlers, access equipment and power generation.

“We’ve been working on setting this piece up for the last six months with JCB, and just this month equipment has started to arrive into the country,” Brunt said.

“Over the course of the next four to six weeks, we have a huge amount of equipment arriving into ports all over the country and arriving in our branches, available to customers across the whole range.”

Telehandlers, already well established in the Australian market under the JCB name, are expected to remain a strength, while Brunt pointed to mini excavators and skid steers as key growth categories given the volume of those machines sold locally.

JCB has recently relaunched its excavator line-up as the X Series, bringing new technology and capability, while the Fastrac tractor range – already represented locally by two models – will be joined by a new 6000 model in the coming months.

Adaptalift JCB has also received its first 5CX dual-drive backhoe loader, which Brunt described as “the jewel in the crown” of JCB’s backhoe range.

The local range is also set to grow at the heavier end. JCB has just launched new Stage V 40-tonne and 50-tonne excavators in the UK, extending the brand’s excavator range from 13 tonnes up to 50 tonnes.

Gonçalves said the larger machines were a direct fit for local conditions. “Australia is the kind of market that requires those sizes of excavators, and we are working towards that – to grow in the excavator market in Australia,” he said.

Brunt said the immediate priority for Adaptalift JCB is ensuring existing JCB owners across Australia receive the support they needed.

"Reaching out to those customers and offering service and parts to them is our first priority, and we will look to expand on that by selling equipment both to them and to other new customers."

Brunt confirmed JCB’s electric equipment range is already available locally and suited to noise- and emissions-sensitive worksites.

“Some of them are very suitable if you’re working in a densely populated area and you don’t want a noisy, smelly piece of machinery," he said.

"All of that’s already available, and we’ll be bringing in more of those and looking for opportunities for customers that those products are right for,” he said, describing the local market for electric equipment as growing.

Hydrogen technology is ready, Brunt said, but constrained locally by infrastructure. “The difficulty, obviously, with hydrogen is there’s a lack of infrastructure in Australia at the moment, but essentially the product is ready to go,” he said.

"It's not something we can make widely available tomorrow...but we expect that to change over the next few years."

Brunt said Adaptalift's partnership with JCB represents a huge milestone for the business. “We’re super excited to launch Adaptalift JCB, and to be working with them – watch this space for what we do over the next few years.”