Norton-Villiers-Triumph
Norton Villiers Triumph, of Wolverhampton and ..., was a British motorcycle manufacturer, formed by the British Government to continue the UK motorcycling industry, but eventually the company failed.
In 1973, the British government's plan to rescue the motorcycle industry forced a merger of BSA (including their subsidiary Triumph) and Norton-Villiers, in return for funds to remain in business. The resultant company was called Norton Villiers Triumph (NVT). The new company would be owned by Manganese Bronze Holdings, shareholders of BSA and the government who would eventually sell its shares. Dennis Poore would be chairman of the new company. Manganese Bronze Holdings contributed Norton-Villiers to the new entity and purchased BSA's non-motorcycle interests [1].
1975 Norton-Villiers Ltd was put into liquidation but this was not seen as likely to save the parent company NVT in the long run [2].
1977 Norton-Villiers-Triumph sold some its assets, principally Triumph stock and tooling, to the workers cooperative at Meriden [3].
1978 NVT was liquidated in 1978. Rotary engined motorcycles appeared under the Norton name for the next 15 years with insufficient sales, until the Norton name as we know it withered away
1980 NVT Motorcycles had continued to produce mopeds at the old BSA factory at Garretts Green, Birmingham under the BSA brand but found competition from Japanese machines was severe [4].
1987 A new group, NVTG, bought the motorcycle and rotary engine manufacturer from BSA[5]
Even though Norton Villiers Triumph is no more, motorcycles bearing the Triumph name continued to be made.
See Also
Sources of Information
- [1] Wikipedia