TVS Motor Company acquires Britain's 'Norton' sporting motorcycle

Well, TVS currently makes Apache motorcycles.
Will the Commando become the Comanche 961?

for $16M or was it £16M, have they bought the factory then in the UK, that would be excellent news. A friend who was in Triumph reckoned it took £100M before they really got anywhere.

And they stay at Donnington, great. Lets hope the dealer network is improved

https://www.superbike.co.uk/article/tvs-prepares-to-buy-norton


https://www.indiatoday.in/auto/late...torcycles-for-rs-153-crore-1668210-2020-04-17

Good news - we hope.

Hopefully, that means that spares will "soon" be available again.

Ken

What about the Jinlaing China 961 sale ? I think TVS just has the newer stuff ?

I suppose it's watch this space. £16M is probably far more than anyone was expecting. My hunch is that the new owner will make good any deposits on new bikes and rebuild stripped down bikes that owners had sent back for work. This would be essential good PR. They may not rufund anyone but just sell them the bike they had purchased. I think the pension funds on the other hand is a whole can of other worms and Garner will have to answer for that. I doubt very much TVS will take on that and why should they.

I was wondering if simon skinner would be retained but I guess they have the designs and have many experienced engineers that they can send over. The Bossman will probably enjoy living at Donnington Hall and why not. Let's hope they can make a success of it. The 961 will no way pass Euro 5 without some serious changes so maybe that will still be sold in small numbers but the Atlas could be the volume model. They will probably do a triumph and move production overseas in a year or two.

We don't know the fine details but for £16M i do think they have taken on some of the liabilities to bring back some lost credability.

After reading about TVS Motorcycles , It seems that finally a capable firm now has a shot at this.

TonyA said:

What about the Jinlaing China 961 sale ? I think TVS just has the newer stuff ?

Click to expand...

A quote from the Economic Times link above,
"Sudarshan said TVS Motor Company is excited about the existing and upcoming products at Norton Motorcycles including Commando, Dominator and V4 RR"

Thats the best news I have heard for a good while, Everybody keeps there job too which right now is huge. If they fill the open customer orders they would be golden for everybody.
Hopefully we can get spares which means we can ride the bikes without to many worries. onwards and upwards!

New model reported to be called the KORMAndo

Did we dare to think that things could work out this well? A restart of production, in the UK, workforce keep their jobs, maintain current product line and those that have paid for bikes receive them? In the middle of the Covid disaster! Is this gonna happen? Bloody delighted if it does. A good news story indeed. Gonna pop another red, just to celebrate!

This is good news, and make no mistake they seem to have some serious talent and experience. One of the directors is ex Toyota and Deloitte, TVS are also involved with BMW I believe. Not sure about the ex-football player though.
I suspect very little production will happen in the UK, it is just too expensive to assemble small volume hand built bikes, though I feel that they would keep a design and test house in the UK as they would understand the British connection.
They will also understand that the TM will need to be policed, unlike others in the past who should have known better.

Mahindra bought BSA, but are too slow in making models to sell to the rest of the world, hopefully TVS will soon fill that gap.

Intersting times ahead it seems.

There is no statement that any jobs saved are permanent and certainly no statement that the long term strategy is to build in the U.K.

Remember, Norton don’t really even have a ‘factory’ at least not in any conventional sense of the word. They have a fabrication shed, some machining cells (on lease, and no doubt already returned), and they assembled bikes in little more than an open plan office space! Even the so called ‘new factory’ for the 650s is really just an empty shell, AKA a barn.

What am I getting at? There is no real manufacturing infrastructure in the U.K. for TVS to ‘keep’. They will want more volume out of the Norton brand than SG was ever able to get. That means they’ll need proper manufacturing facilities.

They may build a new factory in the U.K. and I hope they do. But I’d be very surprised...

Even on this forum, most people state how they don’t care where their Thaiumphs are made, it’s not important to be made in Britain, etc...

If that’s the prevailing opinion of the market then TVS would be daft to start from scratch in U.K. Its just too expensive when compared to their other options.

My money is on them building bikes in the U.K. initially as it’ll be the quickest way to get things rolling again, and then they will migrate to the countries where they have experience, established supply chains, etc.

wait and see... Be surprised if they start making 650s in the UK. Need a proper production space, which doesn’t exist at Donnington. Too much property there that doesn’t earn it’s keep, I think.

Fast Eddie said:

There is no real manufacturing infrastructure in the U.K. for TVS to ‘keep’.

Click to expand...

What does exist is digital drawings, CNC programs, lists of suppliers both current and past, the rest is a few welding jigs etc.

All easily transported. No need to move the CNC machines, sell them in the UK and just buy new ones locally.

I've got my fingers crossed , just like you man !

Certainly the best news for a while I was embarrassed to be a Stuart Garner supporterI had no idea he was such a crook. I happily paid for my 961 in the hope of securing a small British built industry... not because I wanted another motorbike I just wanted to be able to participate in the resurrection of an industry. If I can help the new company in a small way, would need to trade in my 2012 sport to make room in the garage I would be pleased to do that. I would like to be forgiven by those who clearly understood what sort of a bloke that man is.