Business booming for Staffordshire family firm
JCB is not the only Staffordshire company benefiting from renewed growth in the UK's construction industry - family firms like Ace Line Plant in Rugeley are also getting a boost.
Owned by founder Andy Earl, the firm hires out JCB equipment to builders based in a 20 mile radius of its premises at The Levels trading estate.
Andy said: "Business is booming at the moment, mostly due to local builders hiring diggers to work on house extensions and improvements.
"The big growth area at the moment is people extending their homes or digging up their driveways. About a month ago we actually had all our diggers out on hire, even the six new mini-excavators we'd just bought from JCB."
The £100,000 invested in the six new machines - adding to its existing fleet of 15 JCB machines - hot on the heels of a £300,000 project to move the business from its old converted shop premises to a new purpose-built unit in Brick Kiln Way.
Another £40,000 has been invested in installing solar panels on the roof of the 8,000 sq ft unit.
Set up in 1999 by former plant mechanic Andy, now aged 53, Ace Line is a real family affair - wife Clare and son Mike, 28, also work at the firm along with Andy's mother-in-law and his best friend.
And he has high hopes that his 14 and 16-year-old sons will also join the firm in time. Even the firm's name is based on Andy and Clare's initials.
The company now employs six people and Andy is advertising for a seventh to help cope with the surge in growth.
