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Norton opens new factory to produce 8,000 bikes per year
The legendary British manufacturer makes a comeback
Early last year, Indian motorcycle giant TVS acquired the majority of the assets of a once-iconic British motorcycle marque. Younger enthusiasts, especially in the Philippines will likely have never heard of Norton Motorcycles. The once-legendary British motorcycle giant produced some of the world’s most popular machines back in the 60s, such as the Norton Commando.
Unfortunately, Norton faced quite a challenging time towards the tail-end of the twentieth century, exchanging hands quite a few times, and eventually slowing down to a near halt. In 2020, however, things changed to the company’s favor, when TVS, one of India’s biggest motorcycle manufacturers, acquired a large percentage of the company’s assets. Ever since then, Norton, under the leadership of TVS, has been on a road to recovery. It would appear that things are indeed looking up for Norton, as the company has announced quite a few model launches in the not-too-distant future.
To further uplift the hopes of Norton enthusiasts, the company has recently announced that it has opened a new manufacturing facility in Solihull, West Midlands, in England. The new factory occupies a land area of 75,000 square feet and has the potential to be expanded, should the company’s manufacturing capacity increase. At present, the tooling and machinery housed in the new facility will be able to churn out 8,000 motorcycles per year. Now, while this may seem like a tiny number in comparison to the likes of mainstream manufacturers, let’s not forget that Norton is considered as a boutique brand, with loads of premium, highly customizable features. That said, 8,000 bikes per year is a pretty solid start.
Norton’s new facility opened in March, 2021, and is continuing to be optimized for even more efficient production. The company is currently focusing on developing the brand new Commando 961, and hopefully launching this modern iteration of a classic model in the near future. With regards to the company’s partnership with TVS, Norton CEO John Russell expressed his excitement with regards to the steady growth and development of Norton.
“TVS has a long history here, they have been dealing with WMG for a long time and Warwick is only half an hour away. They rightly see the West Midlands as home to many motorcycle-relevant technology industries. Eventually, we'll need a bigger headquarters, but we needed a place immediately for a significant period of time, time to build the brand, strengthen our production capacity and get Norton back on track.”
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