Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128152
Triumph Motorcvcles Ltd. Owner John Bloor regarded, individual player in the motorcycle industry worldwide - all, however, while still remaining a private company, which is rumored to have consumed the sharp end of over $100 million out of John Bloor's personal fortune in terms of bankrolling its growth to date. However, with a regular top-l00 listing in the Sunday Times newspaper's annual Rich List of Britain's wealthiest individuals, Bloor undoubtedly has the resources to underwrite this. Triumph's early-2000 move into a new factory adjacent to its existing Hinckley headquarters has fueled an ongoing increase in production, which rose to 28,000 units in the 2001 model year, with 34,000 machines projected for 2002. This increase in the current flow of 147 new motorcycles presently leaving the Triumph factory each day is predicated on the existing shift pattern for the company's workforce, with single-shift production-line assembly matched by round-the-clock triple-shift working in the company's own on-site machine shop and paint shop - Triumph builds its own engines, remember, and is responsible for a much higher proportion of the in-house creation of its products than most other European manufacturers, even Ducati and, especially, Aprilia. Notwithstanding this, the efficiency of Triumph's production process has become legendary in the industry, with rival manufacturers - including more than one Japanese BY ALAN CATHCART PHOTOS BY KYOICHI NAKAMURA t\fT odest and ultra self-effacing as he undoubtedly Nil is, he won't appreciate your saying it in front of him - but there's no question that 58-year-old construction magnate John Bloor, owner of Triumph Motorcycles Ltd., is the man who has singlehandedly rescued the British motorcycle industry. Or rather, recreated it from the ashes of its own self-destruction, which it took a man like Bloor with the vision, the drive and the bank balance to back it all up - to do. The world's oldest existing motorcycle marque, celebrating its 100th birthday in 2002 (so, one year older than Husqvarna, and Harley-Davidson), Triumph's rebirth with a full range of products powered by its own twin, triple and four-cylinder engines is universally recognized as the success story of the past decade on two wheels - not least in Japan, where Bloor's measured, dedicated recreation of one of the most famous names in the biking history books has many admirers at the highest level among Triumph's Japanese counterparts. Since restarting Triumph production in 1991 in a purpose-built factory (inevitably, put up by Bloor's own construction company!) in Hinckley, in the heart of the British Midlands, the born-again company has grown and prospered to become a well- 60 MAY " 2002' cue • .. n .. _ so company - openly expressing admiration for the British firm's benchmark operation. As the driving force behind a world-class company, whose entire operation is an advertisement for the renaissance of British manufacturing industry, it's regrettable that Bloor's achievement in rebuilding Triumph has not been more widely recognized outside the bike world, even in Tony Blair's bright new Britain. Sir John Bloor? Not yet..... A very private man who shuns publicity, throughout the past decade Bloor has remained resolutely behind the scenes at Triumph, rarely speaking to journalists and enjoying what's best described as a prickly relationship with the more sensationalist elements in the British motorcycle press. He very, very rarely gives interviews - and never before has he agreed to participate in an indepth, detailed discussion of Triumph's past, present and future. The chance to spend a couple of hours with Mr.Triumph in the plainly furnished meeting room, which constitutes his office at Triumph's Hinckley base, was an opportunity to be appreciated. JOhn, it's a cliche to say you're a self-made man - but your background is a humble one, and the position you find yourself in today will give inspiration to many people. How did you get here? Q