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Sale guarantees future of Norton and deposit holders will get bikes

Norton Motorcycles has been sold to Indian motorcycle giant TVS Motor Company in a £16million cash deal that will see manufacturing remain in the UK, while those who paid deposits will finally receive their bikes. Under the agreement, a subsidiary TVS Motor Company has acquired Norton, as well as a licence to occupy the existing manufacturing premises for the next six months, after which they will build a new factory in the UK. Speaking exclusively to MCN, Sudarshan Venu, Joint Managing Director of TVS told us their first aim is to rebuild the brand. “The most important thing for us is to build on Norton’s legacy and restore it to its original glory,” said Venu. “We want to delight customers around the world and take Norton into the future.” If you’re not familiar with the TVS Group, they were founded in 1911 and have grown into a multi-billion pound manufacturing company. As well as manufacturing their own bikes, they also build bikes for other companies (such as BMWs 310cc range) with 3-4 million bikes per year not uncommon, although despite their size they had never looked at buying Norton prior to them being in administration.

What next for Norton?

Administration aside the acquisition ought to propel Norton’s growth by leveraging TVS Motor Company’s global reach and supply chain capabilities, as well as tapping into the firm’s huge resources and manufacturing scale. They intend to continue with the current range including the Commando, Dominator and V4 models as well as bring new bikes to market including the upcoming 650cc parallel twin Atlas models. “We will stay at the current premises for six months but look to move after that,” added Venu. “We have strong connections to the Midlands, having worked with the Warwick Manufacturing Group since the 1980s. We have a technical centre in Warwick that already has 40 TVS staff and we will look to build on that.”

As part of their takeover TVS confirmed all of the current staff will be employed in the takeover as will the design team although former CEO Stuart Garner will be no part of the new business.

To get things going as quickly as possible they have already appointed an interim CEO formerly of Land Rover and Harley-Davidson who has already visited the factory ahead of an imminent return to production.

Five year plan

But TVS do not intend to turn Norton into a high-volume brand. “We will continue to build the current range, which is the core of Norton and focus on large capacity machines,” said Venu. “Hopefully we will expand globally and perhaps build more plants around the world. We hope to restart building as soon as possible but there are issues to work with considering the company’s recent challenges. As long as parts meet the quality and Norton-ness of what is needed, we will work with those brands to make it a reality.”

‘We want to take Norton in to the future’

‘We will build on Norton’s legacy and restore it to its original glory’ ‘We will start to build new bikes as soon as possible’