Norton Motorcycles Losses pass £100m after rescue as global expansion eyed

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Losses at Norton Motorcycles have passed the £100m mark since it was rescued out of administration five years ago.
The Solihull-headquartered business was saved by TVS Motor Company in April 2020 for a reported £16m after having collapsed into administration a few months earlier.
New accounts filed with Companies House have now revealed the iconic brand made a pre-tax loss of £36.7m for the year to 31 March, 2025. The total comes after it lost £38.2m in the prior 12 months, £14.8m in the year to March 2022 and £10.2m in the period before that.
The new results also show Norton Motorcycles’ turnover fell in its latest financial year from £3.9m to £3.4m.
Since being rescued out of administration, Norton Motorcycles’ parent company has pumped almost £160m into the business.
The results come after Richard Arnold, the former chief executive of Manchester United, joined Norton Motorcycles as a director.
Speaking to City AM last August, he said: “Norton’s heritage is undeniably huge and what we’ve got coming up is incredibly exciting. We’re going to go from selling a relatively small number of models in one country to selling a large number of models all over the world. The scale of the plans is tremendous, as is the amount of resources we’re going to be pouring into them.”
In July last year, Norton Motorcycles revealed plans to release six new products by 2027 and to expand its sales into a slate of international territories, beginning with the USA, Germany, France, Italy and India.

Link to full article:
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/norton-motorcycles-losses-pass-100m-133423856.html

Interesting

I wonder how this compares with John Bloor's rebuilding of the Triumph brand? I believe it took him about 6 years, from acquiring the brand to actually selling bikes.
What did that 6 years prior to selling bikes cost?

I think there are differences John.

Bloor had the (relative) luxury of a clean sheet of paper. Triumph m/c were dead and buried, all he bought was the rights to the name. He is a successful property developer, and went to Meriden intending to purchase the land for that purpose. Quite why he went so much further, I don't know.
As you say, a 6 year hiatus- but what difference did that make to the brand? There was no great pressure to put "wheels on the ground".
TVS faced a different situation: an ongoing- albeit shaky- concern; stocks of part- built machines, an order book, and a (disgruntled no doubt) supply chain. Keeping it going more or less in a similar fashion was probably the lesser of 2 evils. Resuscitating a dormant brand would I think have been much harder. Regardless, we NOCCers wish them well.
A final thought: I read a suggestion somewhere that Garner thought shortly after acquiring Norton he could flog it on to Bloor, but he wasn't interested. So he was stuck with it, trying to build up a business he was simply not capable of doing.

Interesting...

I don't understand what you mean by "Bloor had the (relative) luxury of a clean sheet of paper". Both businesses were defunct, the new owners could do with their purchase as they pleased. Any conditions attached to purchase? For instance, did TVS buy the debts?

Bloor allowed Racing Spares to use the Triumph name on the bikes they built. This was done, I believe, to help protect the name. To stop anyone else from using it while Triumph (Hinckley) got on with the job of developing a new range of motorcycles. I note that the factory at Hinckley wasn't built until some 4 years after Bloor had started on the development of the new Triumph brand, that is to say, when they knew they had a viable project. They said very little about the new products until they were absolutely sure the product was properly developed, although plenty of speculation in the press. That must have cost a huge some of money, hence my initial post.

Norton (Solihull) seem to have taken the opposite approach. Immediately talked the brand "up", banging on about heritage and so on, as did Norton (Donington). Promise great things for the future of the the "iconic British brand". Then they started to sell the 961, a bike with a poor reputation? That is to say, the antithesis of Triumph (Hinckley) approach. If Norton (Solihull) wanted to keep the name in the the public eye, rebrand some of there existing products as a stop gap measure?

As far as I can tell, TVS had no obligation to continue with the "old" bikes, I struggle to understand why they continue with them.

I think that the Norton brand has become tainted, starting with the rotaries and their acceptance into racing, always a lively "pub" discussion. Then things got steadily worse, promises of great things that never happened. The Donington saga made a bad situation worse. Therefore, I firmly believe that TVS needed to have absolutely no ties with what had happened before. Exactly as Triumph (Hinckley) did. Also, make no promises until the press can try the thoroughly developed new models we keep hearing about.

In spite of these remarks, I hope TVS can successfully revive the brand as Triumph have. I just feel that they have not gone about it the right way. But then, I know very little about marketing...

Will I buy one of the promised new models? Don't know. I didn't buy a new Triumph until some 21 years after Bloor reintroduced the brand. If I wait that long before buying a Norton I'll probably be in my box by then!

Tainted.?

How on earth do you come to the conclusion that the Norton brand became tainted beginning with the rotaries. I remember when I had my rotary how the Luddites in the club denounced them as 'not proper Nortons'. Times change and some people can't accept that, well that's human nature but I am willing to listen and make my own mind up not be a stick in the mud, we should all be grateful that TVS have rescued the brand and it is moving on to the next chapter because if they hadn't I would have had no need to write this letter. I am on my second 961 now, absolutely love them and to me the logo on the tank says it all , to me it is a proper Norton.

Yes, tainted...

The rotary's entry into racing was subject to a lot of discussion, those happy to accept it through to those who considered it out and out cheating. Nothing to do with Luddism. By connection, the rotary is far more Norton than anything that has come since.

The name has gone through several ownerships, each promising to resurrect the brand. Nothing much happened so its only natural that people become sceptical. Over an extended period this sort of scepticism does tend to taint a brand.

Then, along came Garner and his version of Norton. What a sorry saga that was was. The problems have been well documented, not just the bike, which, unfortunately turned out to be problematic and still seems to be. The general performance of the business left a lot to be desired. All this has generated a negative perception of the brand, hence my assertion that the Norton name being tainted.

Having said all that, I really do hope that TVS can produce a bike that can carry the Norton name with great success.

So do I, but that gets…

So do I, but that gets harder each day, Moto Morini are releasing a 450 twin ADV type bike a stupid name, but it looks well made for its intended purpose, along with the BMW 450 twin. The amrket place will a hard place to compete, but good for buyers.

flag wavers

Hope TVS succeed with their plans for Norton.

I suppose we should hope for continued design and development in Solihull, but realistically production may well move overseas to India.

That's not going to please the flag wavers, but look at Triumph's success with production centres in Thailand and Brasil.

New

New Nortons aren't too expensive are they ?

According to Wikipedia TVS…

According to Wikipedia TVS Motor Company had a net revenue of $420 million in FY25:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TVS_Motor_Company

The same source says the parent TVS group had revenue of USD 8.5 billion in 2019.

So I doubt that these essentially start-up costs at Norton Motors attract much comment at board meetings.

TVS Motor annual report here: https://www.tvsmotor.com/ar-23-24/pdf/TVS-Motor-AR-23-24.pdf

Thanks for putting those…

Thanks for putting those losses into perspective Julian. As you say, start-up costs on an enterprise of this size are likely to seem eye-watering to us mere mortals, but all in a days work to some!

The losses may well be…

The losses may well be totally insignificant to the parent group, but they pride themselves on profit making and they have shareholders. Knowingly running a business at a loss or intentionally doing so is not allowed in the UK, unless they plan to prove otherwise. Having read the financial report it seems there is very little in the way of a future plan, mind you, they could be forgiven for that at the moment when one nation seems hell bent in causing disruption and confusion in global trade.

Making a loss is not illegal…

Making a loss is not illegal, whether it is intentional or otherwise. What is definitely illegal (but a civil not criminal matter) is trading while insolvent.

This happens when a company continues to trade and incur new debts even though it cannot meet its existing liabilities when they fall due.

See (e.g.) https://insolvency.co.uk/knowledge-centre/trading-while-insolvent/

Given TVS's finances, the likelihood that Norton Motors could become insolvent is approximately zero.

John Bloor

“While attending the auction of the site of the former Triumph factory to buy the site for house construction, Bloor bought the collapsed Triumph brand in 1983. After sub-licensing the brand for a period, he invested over £80 million into rebuilding the marque, opening the new Hinckley factory in 1991 After a factory fire in 2002 stopped production the factory was rebuilt, and now produces 46,000 motorcycles per annum. “
wikipedia
So, £80m+ up to 1991. So at 2025 values, well north of £100m I'd say. But from what TVS are saying, they still seem to see Norton as a niche, premium product, and not looking at great volumes- at least, that's the public face. Guess we will all have to wait and see, but shouldn't be too long before there are new bikes with a Norton badge.

Surely there is a…

Surely there is a significant element of technology transfer going on? TVS are clearly far more successful commercially than any British motor manufacturer, but there is a great deal of modern technical design expertise in the UK; especially in the Midlands. TVS, armed with the Norton brand name, can probably attract additional expertise which might well add considerable value to their brand reputation in their rapidly expanded home country. But we all all guessing. I find it's usually impossible to answer the question "Why?" with any confidence.

TVS already had a…

TVS already had a longstanding working relationship with the Midlands, the acquisition of Norton was just another string to that bow.

Norton Owners Club