Skinthespin,

When I read Richard Barks' post referring to he not able to get into the factory, I knew then you guys lost sight of what is most important. Everything else is peripheral to the customer. When you become too busy to attend to the customer you soon will have no customer to attend to.

Hi Jim, we havent at all lost sight of the customer and we know without a customer there is no Norton, end of, but we didn't know Richard was there, like I said in my post any customer is welcome, just need a call or mail and we can let security know your coming.

like I said in my post any customer is welcome, just need a call or mail and we can let security know your coming.

Barks did call, from the gate. Someone told security to deny entry. Barks has ordered a bike, with probably a substantial deposit, yet was not able to get into the factory as advertised.

JimC wrote:

like I said in my post any customer is welcome, just need a call or mail and we can let security know your coming.

Barks did call, from the gate. Someone told security to deny entry. Barks has ordered a bike, with probably a substantial deposit, yet was not able to get into the factory as advertised.

Jim, unless you have a deposit on a bike, perhaps you should stop busting their balls. It's a small company with a lot of visibility. Calling from the gate is not the same as setting up a prior appointment (which is what he meant by calling first).

When John Bloor bought Triumph, he paid something like 44 million pounds for the works. His main intention was to develop the Meriden site into a housing community, which he did.

In the meantime, he licensed Les Harris to continue to build Bonnevilles while he built a new factory in Hinckley, and developed a new range of motorcycles. Harris built Bonnies through 1988, and the Hinckley Triumphs went into pre-production in '89, with customer sales beginning in 1990.

All in all, Bloor is said to have invested a little over 1 billion pounds in Triumph, though much of this investment was financed by the development of the Meriden property and licensing of the Triumph trademark. Supposedly, the company went into the black around 2000, and has been making money ever since.

I hope Mr. Garner understands this Norton venture may not pay off for a decade or more, if ever.

If he follows the lessons of Triumph and not of Indian, I think he can succeed.

Re :

I hope Mr. Garner understands this Norton venture may not pay off for a decade or more, if ever.

He is going to need deep pockets to get it off the ground, especially in the present economic climate. I can't see a bank investing in a new motorcycle manufacturing business at the moment to get a return on their investment.

Good luck to him.

More of a passion or crusade to resurect such a classic name than a business venture, bit like us, do we add up the money we spend on our bikes ? ( It would give too much ammunition to the wife ! )