Triumph brings in more cash

The Triumph Motorcycles Group, owned by English business magnate John Bloor OBE, made an operating profit (before interest and tax) of $29.8m for the year ending June 30, 2008, a 16 percent increase on the previous result.

Group turnover increased by 29 percent from $452m in 2007 to $584m, and unit sales of motorcycles increased 19 percent from 41,125 to 48,929. This volume increase in sales has been attributed to new model introductions and new export markets.

"We are cautiously optimistic when it comes to Triumph's performance," said Tue Mantoni, the CEO of Triumph. "New models are extremely important to driving growth and we are very pleased with the reception of the recently launched Thunderbird (Ed: in Europe, it goes on sale here in October), a 1600cc parallel-twin cruiser.

"Our global retail network and the enthusiast press have all been impressed with the distinctive styling and excellent performance of this important new model, and we have already built a promising deposit bank, which will give our retailers a strong platform for launching this new model."

Since June 30, 2008, there has been a marked deterioation in the global economy, so we await Triumph's operating result for 2008-2009 with keen interest. Locally, Triumph has managed to rally in 2009, and was just couple of percent down in sales in May compared to the same period in 2008.

Triumph currently sells around 50,000 bikes per year through a global network of around 700 retailers, including 50 in Australia.

Its bikes are manufactured out of locations in England and Thailand.

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