he's no longer on Andover's UK dealer list. I wonder where he gets all his 'genuine parts'? Have to assume he's using up old stock or they are still supplying him, grudgingly? Business is business after all
I decline to go into details here. Andover Norton (i.e. I) cancelled his trade account last year for reasons the more informed members of this forum will most probably guess. I wanted a clean division between what
we have manufactured to works drawings, on works tooling, to works spec., and what is sourced from
"alternative" suppliers.
One of these "alternative" suppliers is
BASED in England, but few of the products sourced from this "English" supplier are
MADE in England, most coming from China, India, etc. Hence the "99% British" figure quoted has to be put into perspective.
Not even Andover Norton- who source about a dozen parts from this same supplier, by the way, less than 1% of the total purchasing budget- but who have the vast majority of their parts actually made in England, could
truthfully claim that high a percentage of English content in our product range. We also source parts from Germany, Italy, France, Czech Republic, the US, etc. An FAG bearing is not "Made in England", even if we buy it from FAG UK. It is all a question of definition or, dare I say it, truthfulness.
"Business is business after all" was true when I took Andover Norton over. Andover Norton was then (2007) in the ropes financially. We simply
could not, at the time,
afford to cancel anybody's account. This situation has since changed dramatically by widening our product range and re-investing all the profits. Instead of leaving half the Norton spares to others to source and supply we now do that ourselves and can offer dealers and retail customers alike the full range of Norton parts for Commandos and an increasing number for Dommis and even singles.
The cancellation of Emery's account has not hurt Andover Norton in the least. We have increased turnover yet again in the financial year that just ended on the 31st March. I have to thank you, the Norton customers, for this, and hope we can go on improving our services to you.
And, by the way- neither I, nor members of my staff collect locomotives, busses, or aeroplanes.
We, at Andover Norton, collect, and ride, Norton motorcycles. Even my three kids have at least a Norton each and ride Nortons on road and track. I need to keep Andover Norton going in order to keep my own Nortons going!
Joe Seifert, owner, Andover Norton International Ltd
