Fellow members of the Norton family,
I wanted to write to you personally. You are an important part of Norton and our plans. It has been quite a week for Norton and I wanted to bring you up to date with our plans.
Hopefully by now you will have seen our news and the results of all our work over the past five years, preparing the marque we love for its next chapter. Full details will be coming to Roadholder soon.
We knew from day one how important the heritage of Norton is to our vision of the future and, most importantly, to our loyal owners. You invest so much time and emotion in keeping our heritage up and running. This has been in the hearts of everyone at Norton involved in the project.
We chose to use the names Manx and Atlas not just as a passing nod to these Norton giants, but because we want to take the spirit of those legendary bikes and carry it into the next generation.
I am sure like me that alongside preserving the tremendous heritage, you are keen to see Norton thrive and future generations know the joy and freedom brought by a Norton. I see passing on this passion to future generations as a key to Norton's success and would like to enroll your help. That has been an important driver in the product direction.
There is a new logo, as part of the ongoing evolution of the company. However, we are proud of our heritage and plan to use the previous version alongside the new, to celebrate that heritage.
That was part of our vision from day one and, with the help of Gerry McGovern, we feel we have created a Norton for the future respectful to the Norton of the past.
Our future capitalises on the incredible platform and technologies we have available within the TVS Motor family. This now includes Engines Engineering in Italy, ensuring we have everything we need to make sure the performance and characteristics of the Manx and Atlas are world-class. For example, working with Brembo for the braking, Marzocchi for the semi-active suspension and Bosch for the associated systems, the Manx R is able to generate over 1g of braking force - for all riders. This is a unique achievement in the category and just a small glimpse of what we've achieved.
Being a UK manufacturer is important to us. We have invested in our factory in Solihull, adding physical assets but as importantly developing and recruiting skills here in the UK. We have grown our UK workforce 25% in the last year alone.
Norton has been and always will be an enthusiast-led company, myself included. You'll be hearing a lot more from us in the future and we look forward to welcoming you to some exclusive events we have in the pipeline, both at the factory, on the road and we hope with invites to your regular district and country meetings.
We're working tirelessly to take Norton proudly back onto the world stage, the response so far has been overwhelming and we thank you for your ongoing support.
Your respectfully,
Richard Arnold
Executive Director, Norton Motorcycles
Unit 500 Solar Park, Highlands Road, Solihull, B90 4SH
