In September Triumph Motorcycles celebrated the 20th anniversary of its rebirth with a day long festival at Mallory Park. Headline acts included The Stranglers – dedicated Triumph fans – and Mumford & Sons.
Triumph – 100 per cent owned by John Bloor who rescued it from oblivion – certainly has something to celebrate. Turnover continues to grow, exceeding £300 million, profits are up, and its product portfolio is a world beater.
Which is just as well, as the bike business is keeping Bloor Holdings on the road, giving much needed acceleration to the less high-revving housing business.
In 2009 Triumph Motorcycles increased sales in the UK market by 26 per cent, overtaking Kawasaki as the fourth largest bike brand in the UK, despite a worldwide drop in the large capacity motorcycle market.
Triumph’s market share of the UK 500cc-plus market increased from 9.2 per cent to 13 per cent. The launch of the 2011 1050cc Sprint GT sports tourer should boost sales further.
But the slump in house sales has hit Bloor Homes hard over the last couple of years, and things are only just beginning to turn round. Sales and profits slumped and that, combined with heavy investment in the motorcycle business, tipped the Bloor Holdings overall performance well into the red. The company refinanced its debt through to 2012 with new facilities, which it believes will see it through the current difficult times.
Meanwhile Measham-based Bloor Homes continues to come up with ingenious ways of keeping the sluggish property market on the move.
Bloor Homes – one of the largest privately-owned housebuilding groups in the UK – is offering a HomeStart 2 scheme which allows to buyers to own their home by buying only a percentage of its total price, the rest being payable when the house is sold on. It also has a special Move for Free offer in which it will pay buyers’ stamp duty, legal and survey costs, provide new carpets and pay £1,000 towards removal costs.
Bloor Homes continues to invest in several new housing schemes including developments in Swindon, Newbury, Frome and Radstock.
Our estimation of the value of 67-year-old John Bloor’s revitalised Triumph Motorcycles keeps him firmly in the top half of our Rich List. Former business minister, ex-director of the CBI and respected Brummie Lord Digby Jones was appointed non-executive chairman of Triumph Motorcycles in June 2009.
The Triumph factory in Hinckley and a new manufacturing facility in lower-cost Thailand, are models of production efficiency. The Hinckley factory is one of the most efficient in the bike-making business, capable of turning out a motorcycle engine every 90 seconds. This efficiency keeps prices competitive, to the extent that one American bike mag described the Speed Four as “ridiculously cheap.”
Triumph builds 50,000 machines a year and employs 1,200 people worldwide
Derbyshire-born property millionaire John Bloor – who lives in Swadlincote – rescued the collapsed Triumph in 1983 and the brand displayed the first products from its Hinckley factory in 1990. John Bloor has poured more than £80 million into rebuilding the 100-year-old brand. He was awarded the OBE in 1995 for services to the motorcycle industry and holds an honorary law degree from Leicester University.
