Norton Sees Global Manufacturing as a Way into Key Markets

News reports have surfaced this week which state that Norton is imminently looking to take production of its bikes out of the UK and into its Indian-owned parent company TVS’s backyard.

The articles relate to comments made by TVS CEO Sudarshan Venu, who stated he was looking to “leverage” the vast amount of experience TVS has with high-volume production and its sizable supply chain, to help the relative minnow (in manufacturing terms) that is Norton get a foothold on the global stage.

To find out more we reached out to Norton and its new Executive Director, Richard Arnold, did indeed confirm that Norton is looking to other regions to set up manufacturing or assembly bases in, although the heart of Norton will very much remain in the Midlands. He also pointed out that while a shift to some overseas production is on the cards, there is more to it than simply cutting costs and raising the bottom line.

The Asian continent, and India in particular, are huge markets for powered two-wheelers, and that is something that Norton understandably wants to tap into. It makes no financial sense for a manufacturer to build its bikes in the UK at a high cost to them, and then ship them halfway around the world to sell in another economy. For Norton to properly get its teeth into the Asian market, it’s going to have to start making some bikes there.

“Norton’s vision and plan is to be a global player,” he said. “As part of that Norton will harness globally scaled efficiencies in terms of purchasing and supply chain logistics from our parent company, TVS Motor.”

He also went on to say that while some models will be built or assembled overseas, a big part of the company will remain in Britain, which is backed up by the huge investment Norton has poured into its Solihull base since the TVS takeover.

Mr Arnold said “UK design and manufacturing remains at the core of Norton’s plans. Our increased global footprint will create opportunities in international markets, assembly in some of those new global markets will form part of our plan. India is the largest motorcycle market in the world, with 15.8 million bikes sold in 2023. Servicing that market locally obviously creates big advantages to our future customers.”