BritTwit
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- Joined
- Aug 25, 2009
- Messages
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Trouble is, if Bloor inc took Norton over and wanted to do so to utilise their current knowledge, factories, etc... and if they wanted a suitable return on their investment... then they’d have to totally start from scratch and build a modern, reliable, economical to build, high volume machine that exploited economies of scale on their supply chain... which then would be so much like their current classic range that the majority of customers they attract would be those who would have otherwise likely bought a Triumph anyway. Resulting in few net additional sales. This is known as ‘brand cannibalism’ whereby one’s own offerings are competing with each other to a negative extent.
The alternative is that they buy Norton and leave it be as a stand alone ‘niche / boutique’ concern... but I can’t see how they’d benefit from that either.
It would be awesome for Norton owners if they did, imagine having access to the huge Triumph dealership network! But even that raises another negative, they know they’d be buying responsibility for troublesome machines.
Bottom line, IMHO, is I can see little or no benefit to Triumph for buying Norton. Thus I can’t imagine they’re remotely interested.
Just my take.
Doubt it’s Bloor too.
Norton is nothing to worry about for Triumph.
But let’s say it is Bloor, what might he be up to?
1. Buy the Norton brand, peanut/cigarette money to Bloor really. Then bury the brand, take it off market for ever. Now who ya gonna buy a modern classic from.
2. OK, Bloor buys the brand, then tells his product boys to take the Triumph Speed Twin, paint the tank to say Norton, put a big “N” on the timing cover, and paint Commando 1200 on the side covers. Viola - Norton Commando 1200. Now, you want a Norton, buy it from Triumph. Zero development cost to Bloor.