Norton's fortunes improve

The story of iconic British bike maker Norton Motorcycle's recent revival has encountered a few speed bumps along the way, with the latest twist in the tale being a positive one - the company has managed to secure more funding from global banking giant Santander.

The last story we ran on Norton Motorcycles was not so positive. Design guru Pierre Terblanche shocked the industry by resigning from Norton due to alleged strained relations with management. It was a significant setback the for the company, but is doesn't appear to be terminal and with a new £625,000 ($970,000) loan from one of Europe's largest banks it looks as though it's business as usual for Norton Motorcycles.

Stuart Garner, the CEO of Norton Motorcycles, said the loan would "...enable our business to grow rapidly to meet the demands of an ever increasing international customer base. I am thrilled we now have the opportunity to take on more staff to join our team."

A regular sponsor of top flight motorsport, including F1, the Spanish banking group Santander has agreed to loan Norton Motorcycles almost one million dollars under its Export Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme, and Norton has said it plans to hire more workers, taking the head count from 30 to 60 by 2012, and increase its current production to 1000 units per annum.

This injection of funds will be vital if Norton is to reach its goal of selling motorcycles outside the UK, as owner Stuart Garner said in late 2010: "Yet all that’s without tapping several major potential markets for Norton, as we will do next year, like the USA, Australasia, South Africa and key European countries."

Garner has said that Norton Motorcycles is a racing brand and, as such, will need to return to racing to be taken seriously. With a new 1000cc V4 engine currently under development, rumours of a tilt at MotoGP racing began circulating, but such a move isn't likely for another few years at least, and not until the company begins selling motorcycles in greater numbers in order to support an costly racing team.

However it should be noted that Norton Motorcycle's headquarters is at Donington Park in Derbyshire, UK, a race track, and it would certainly not be lacking testing grounds for any potential new sports bikes. As well the hiring of new personnel, the loan from Santander will also accelerate research and development of new models.

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