IT’S fair to say that the last few years of Norton Motorcycles have been a sad time for one of the UK’s most famous motorcycle manufacturers. All culminating in the collapse of the firm this year at the hands of Stuart Garner.
With an unpaid tax bill looming, customers claiming they had paid sizable sums for bikes that never arrived and the Norton pension scheme scandal. It’s clear that the new owners, TVS, have a mountain to climb to try and restore faith in the firm.
Norton Commando custom by Moto Corsa
As part of the purchase, TVS has agreed to honour the deposits that people had already paid to the previous management at Norton. To facilitate this, owners will have to agree to transfer their deposits from the old business to the new one. Now, that’s all well and good, should the owner wish to proceed.
There will no doubt be some who have paid money into the Norton brand who are fed up of waiting, and more than likely just want their money back. TVS has those customers covered. Although there is a caveat to the offer. Should they wish to withdraw their cash from the business completely, they’ll have to join the sizable queue of companies and private individuals also waiting for their pound of flesh.
At the time of the Norton collapse, there were a number of bikes inside Norton’s Donington HQ, sent back for warranty claims. TVS has agreed to sort some of those out, although it seems that not all the warranty claims will be fixed.
