JCB backhoe loader poppy badges raise £12,500 for Royal British Legion

JCB employees have bought 2,400 commemorative poppy pin badges featuring a JCB backhoe loader, helping to raise £12,500 for the Royal British Legion's 2026 Poppy Appeal, the manufacturer said on 5 November.

The badges were designed by retired Staffordshire firefighter Kelvin Chell and sold at all 11 of JCB's UK manufacturing sites in the run-up to Armistice Day, according to JCB. The company said the initiative raised more than £11,400, and that it topped the total up to £12,500.

Employees bought all 2,400 badges within days of them going on sale, JCB said. Mr Chell sold a further 850 through local shops and online, with orders from the United States, Canada, Ireland and the Orkney Islands.

Kelvin Chell, badge designer, said: "Sales of the JCB badges have been brilliant. I have had orders from all over the world and we could definitely have sold more."

The badges

Sales channel	Badges sold
JCB employees at 11 UK sites	2,400
Local shops and online	850

Mr Chell has produced 39 different themed poppy badges and approached JCB after hearing it was marking its 80th anniversary, JCB said. The company and Fenton-based JCB supplier Rayne Engineering then joined forces to help fund production.

When JCB announced the badge in July 2026, it said JCB and Rayne Engineering had agreed to fund production of 1,300 badges, with the first sales at the JCB Lakeside 5 and Fun Run on Thursday 9 July. The November announcement puts total sales at 3,250. Neither announcement explains the difference between the two figures.

JCB Head of Defence Adam Fraser-Hitchen DL, a former Army Brigadier, handed the funds over at JCB World Headquarters in Rocester.

Annemarie Jones, Regional Poppy Appeal Manager for the Northeast and Northwest Midlands, said: "This has been a lovely initiative which has raised important funds for the armed services community."

Background

JCB said the badge fundraiser continues its support for the Royal British Legion, which included a poppy-themed machine auctioned for the charity in 2018 to mark the centenary of the Armistice.

The company's 80th anniversary fell on 23 October 2025, 80 years after Joseph Cyril Bamford CBE founded the business in a lock-up garage in Uttoxeter, JCB said. According to Chairman Lord Bamford, JCB directly employs more than 19,000 people worldwide, more than 8,000 of them in the UK.

JCB describes itself as the world's third largest construction equipment brand by volume, with 22 plants on four continents, 11 of them in the UK.

Mr Chell's earlier designs have included Staffordshire themes such as the Staffordshire Knot, Potteries bottle kilns and the Spitfire, JCB said.

The Royal British Legion said its Poppy Appeal raised £56.6m in 2025. The 2026 appeal launched nationally on 22 October, and Armistice Day and the Two-Minute Silence fall on 11 November.