Sir Anthony Bamford, chairman of JCB, may not have celebrated his 63rd birthday in lavish style yesterday. For a man who refers to his staff as “people who consider themselves part of the JCB family”, seeing 2,500 of them accept a pay cut of £50 a week to prevent the loss of 350 jobs must have been touching but also hard to stomach.

It is a setback in what has been a meteoric rise for the yellow-digger tycoon, whose vast wealth has afforded him clout in aristocratic and political circles.

Sir Anthony is on first-name terms with the Prince of Wales, Tony Blair and David Cameron. His wife Carole, who runs a successful organic shop called Daylesford Organics, has been known to lunch with Joan Collins and Sir David Frost.

In 1975, at the age of 29, Sir Anthony took over his father's company, which had been founded in 1945, by the returning war veteran Joseph Cyril Bamford (his initials form the company name).

It boasted annual sales of £120 million by 1979, up from £44 million when Sir Anthony took control. JCB had been transformed into one of the most valuable private companies in Britain.

The secret of the company's success, Sir Anthony claimed in a recent speech, is “the fact that we have ploughed our own furrow, remained a private company and not ventured into other businesses. That has been my philosophy. I've kept it simple.”

His personal life is rather more colourful. In 2006, Mr Blair's family was reported to be using Sir Anthony's £5 million holiday home in Barbados as a “glorified beach hut” while staying at Sir Cliff Richard's nearby villa.

Mr Cameron has also been the recipient of Sir Anthony's generosity, in the form of £1 million donation. The Conservative leader was later accused of endorsing a commercial venture linked to a benefactor when he announced plans to open JCB's new factory in India.

Sir Anthony stepped down as managing director in 2005 but remains chairman. He denies suggestions that he may be about to retire.

His eldest son, Joe, is mooted as heir apparent to Sir Anthony, who has another son, George, and a daughter, Alice.

In the 2008 Sunday Times Rich List, Sir Anthony was the highest-placed construction tycoon, in 34th place, with an estimated family fortune of £1.2 billion. He was knighted in 1990 at the age of 44. His hobbies include farming and gardening.