It’s fair to say that when it comes to troubled waters, Norton has navigated them and, for the most part, remained seaworthy. The dark days of the Garner era are long gone, although the firm’s latest set of financial results show that there is still work to be done.
The Solihull-based firm’s latest set of results do make for painful reading, although the headline numbers might only tell half the story. The most prominent of those numbers reveals that Norton made a pre-tax loss of £32.8 million in the year leading up to 31 March 2024. Indeed, it is taking a while for TVS to make a profitable business out of the historic British brand, with losses also recorded in 2023 (£29.6m), 2022 (£14.8m), and 2021 (£10.2m).
The Norton V4SV at the press launch in 2022
While the numbers do paint a clear picture of what the bottom line has been over the past few years, TVS was likely prepared to take a bit of a hit when it acquired the brand on 17 April 2020. It’s also had a significant hill to climb to try and correct some of the Garner-era bikes and make them fit for sale to the public - despite TVS-owned Norton not having a legal obligation to do so. The V4SS was re-designed, re-engineered and relaunched as the Norton V4SV (later joined by the naked V4CR) and Norton launched F1-inspired LE models of both machines. The retro Commando 961 also had to be scrutinised by the new owners, and none of those activities are considered ‘cheap’, even for a relatively small manufacturer such as Norton.
Norton is also spending some money so it can, hopefully, make some money further down the line, and has been filling key positions ready for new models to be launched in the coming years in ‘different segments’ and ‘different geographies’. What those models could look like we don’t yet know, although in interviews Norton CEO Dr Robert Hentschel, has spoken about new petrol-powered and electric motorcycles that are on the horizon from the Midlands manufacturer.
