JOHN BLOOR, A MAN OF VISION

JOHN BLOOR, A MAN OF VISION
by Rocky

In 1983, John Bloor was looking at a boarded up factory in the village of Meriden located in a green belt between the midlands cities of Birmingham and Coventry, England. The millionaire land developer was looking for his next building site, but what he found instead was an idea for a new business.

The decrepit factory still had the words “Triumph Engineering Company Ltd.” across the front of the building and it was from here the legendary Triumph motorcycle had been produced since 1941. Although Bloor decided not to buy the property, for a sum rumored to be about £150,000., he acquired the Triumph motorcycle brand name along with the designs and tooling.

To keep the Triumph name alive while he put his plans into operation, John Bloor licensed Les Harris of Racing Spares to continue building the Bonneville to 1983 specification at his small factory in Devon. Racing Spares was already making Triumph parts for the factory when they went out of business, so they were in a good position to assemble complete bikes. 1,258 Triumph Bonneville’s for the UK market only rolled off their assembly line from 1985 to 1989.

For the next six years Bloor and his staff designed and developed in secret. In 1985 he built a no-name factory on a 10 acre site in Hinckley and filled it with tooling necessary for prototype engineering. The wraps were kept on so well that it was 1989 before any news got out. The unveiling of an engine casting at a US convention created a buzz in the motorcycling press, but it was not until June 1990 that the press was invited to see the new factory for the first time.

The tooling from the old Triumph factory was so worn out that consistent manufacturing of parts to modern standards was impossible. In 1989, state-of-the-art tooling began to arrive and production began the following year. The company sign, a stylized version of the old Triumph name with the swooping R, went up on the factory and Triumph Motorcycles Limited was in business.

Now, 22 years later, the Triumph motorcycle is back and solidly holding its own in the market place, but it was a rough and tumble slugfest to get to where they are today.

Bloor is the sole owner of his factory and knew going in that it would take at least ten years to show a profit, but that was a business decision he was willing to make. Without any outside financial assistance Bloor invested £80,000,000. of his own money and 20 years of his life in a business that many would have said was doomed from the start. To top it all off, Bloor, who made his considerable fortune building residential housing and business complex’s, knew nothing about manufacturing, never mind motorcycles. But as the owner of the Triumph factory Bloor has complete control and the flexibility to direct the business as he wishes.

Why would anyone willingly enter into such a potentially disastrous business venture? “In the early 1980’s I was watching the Japanese set up automobile plants in the UK to take advantage of currency exchange rates, “ Bloor recalls, “and I thought the playing field might be getting more even for manufacturing things again in Britain.”

Risky or not, Bloor saw an opportunity to make money and was betting on the heritage and lore of the Triumph name in the UK, Europe and the United States. Triumph motorcycles are those of legend and myth from the 50’s and 60’s when Triumph and Harley-Davidson went head to head as fierce rivals for favour amongst the American riders. The 1960’s were the peak years for the old Triumph Company and they sold more motorcycles in the United States than in the UK.

“When acquiring the Triumph brand name I knew that Triumph was a recognized name with motorcyclists,” said Bloor, “however, the product was very much out-of-date and not capable of meeting the performance and durability standards of consumers.” He continued, “Our aim was to reintroduce Triumph with advanced engineering and state-of-the-art technology along with modern styling.”

John Bloor is soft-spoken man and not given to being flashy or flamboyant. He was born in 1944 into humble circumstances as the son of a miner in England’s Midlands. Complications with a dislocated and infected hip as a child resulted in numerous operations between the ages of 12 and 15 that kept him out of school for all but a few months. “Looking back,” he says, “it seems like an advantage. It stiffens the backbone.”

At age 17 Bloor left school and went to work as an apprentice plasterer which introduced him to the housing industry. He soon owned his own plastering business and was studying house building at night school. It wasn’t long before he launched J. S. Bloor Holdings which he built up into one of England’s most successful housing developers. Bloor owns 95% of the shares of his conglomerate and is one of the wealthiest men in England.

Due to his bad hip Bloor had only ridden motorcycles occasionally as a teenager, but had not ridden one for decades and had no interest in them – until that fateful day in 1983. Today, John Bloor can have any motorcycle he wants, but at age 61 his cranky hip prevents him from rumbling around on two wheels preferring to get his kicks as the pilot of his Mercedes high-performance luxury sedan.

In a sense Bloor backed into the motorcycle business. His holding company happened to include a subsidiary that rents construction equipment, and Bloor says that tinkering with that machinery aroused a longing to make something other than houses, shopping centers and apartment complexes. “I’m interested in seeing things put together well, and I just had a little hankering to build some kind of product,” he recalls. Bumping into the ghost of Triumph motorcycles that day in Meriden provided the answer of what to build.

Ever the smart business man, Bloor immediately surrounded himself with people who knew motorcycles; Triumph motorcycles in particular. His first move was to hire three employees of the original Triumph Company who had been involved in developing new models. The second thing he did was to take his newly formed group to the alter of motorcycle manufacturing, Japan. “I knew the Japanese were the best source of motorcycle manufacturing wisdom so I took the guys over there with me.”

Why would the Japanese help a potential rival? “They were very open and polite, but they weren’t scared of us,” he recalls. “They must have looked at us and thought ‘if you think you can do it, good luck to you.’ ” The quality and style of the motorcycles being produced by the Japanese manufacturers quickly convinced them that the old Triumph Company’s unfinished development projects were hopelessly obsolete. “We decided to scrap the lot and start fresh,” says Bloor.

Bloor has no sentimental or patriotic attachment to the extinct British motorcycle factories, but out of all the defunct British marquee’s Triumph lasted the longest and seemed to be the one most likely to succeed again. “The British motorcycle industry was mismanaged, plain and simple, and we don’t intend to fall into that trap,” he says.

To catch up and keep pace with the established bike makers Bloor knew he would have to design and innovate at lightning speed. With a staff of 90 in design and R & D and millions of pounds for a budget, Bloor admits, “We’ve been paddling pretty hard to get up to speed, but the key is in R & D if we are to keep up with the big boys and survive.”

Bloor also tapped into the brainpower of engineering firms like Lotus and Cosworth who are involved in building many of the worlds winning race cars. Bloor understood that the engine is everything in a motorcycle and there is no way to make a bike with an underpowered or unreliable engine feel like a rocket or put a smile on the face of a customer. His engines would have to have power and performance if he was to succeed.

“The engine is the core of the bike, the crown jewel, and you’ve got to keep control of it,” says Bloor. With technical support from Lotus and Cosworth he put his team of engineers and metal workers to work designing new liquid-cooled, three and four-cylinder engines that would save costs by sharing internal parts.

Triumph Motorcycles Ltd. went into production in 1990, only a few miles from the site of the old Triumph factory in Meriden. It was arguably the most modern motorcycle factory in the world at that time and many industry experts say it still is. In September 1990, six brand new 1991 Triumph motorcycle models with familiar names like Trident, Daytona and Trophy were unveiled at the Cologne motorcycle show in Germany. 2,400 machines were sold the first year and Triumph was off to a good start.

Bloor’s bold venture was such a success that the factory was bursting at the seams within a few years. In 1996, he started construction on a larger factory with separate office and R & D buildings to allow for greater production and expansion within the main facility. By 2001, annual production was up to 33,000 and Bloor had put Britain firmly back on the motorcycle map with a succession of sport and touring models bearing nostalgic names like Tiger, Sprint and Thunderbird.

The New Bonneville 790cc vertical twin introduced in 2001 is about 85% faithful to the old 650cc T120 Bonneville in design, but is modern in every way. This was followed by the Bonneville America and Speedmaster cruiser versions and the flashier Bonneville T100.

2002 was the 100th anniversary of Triumph and the deluxe T100 with a special paint scheme was the ideal model to carry the commemorative decal.

Looking back, Bloor has concluded that motorcycle manufacturing, just like auto making, is largely a matter of sheer willpower and the guts to take a risk. “Little did I know how difficult motorcycle manufacturing was going to be; they are extremely complex machines. You need to multiply by two or three whatever amount of money you think you need – and hope there aren’t too many speed bumps along the way.”

Just as the new Triumph company was starting to show a profit a devastating factory fire in March 2002 was one of those speed bumps. The main factory building was a total loss, but half of the 40-acre complex of buildings was untouched by fire and design and R & D continued. Reconstruction began immediately and in six months motorcycles were slowly rolling off the new assembly line with full production reached by December. It was an amazing recovery from the ashes.

On the heels of the successful Bonneville and T100 models came the outrageous 2294cc Rocket III mega cruiser and the racy 865cc Bonneville Thruxton café racer look-alike. These are being followed in 2006 by the Daytona 675cc triple sport bike and a Bonneville street scrambler with high pipes.

The Bonneville models have been largely responsible for the financial successes of recent years, but the Rocket III, with its raucous 140 bhp triple engine, is currently the best selling Triumph in the US. The success of this model will be followed by a flashier Rocket III Classic version.

Annual production now exceeds 50,000 units with an eventual goal of 80,000, but huge production figures are not the end-all and be-all for Mr. Bloor. His business plan has always has been to keep his eye on the market and sales; manufacture quality products; sell everything he can make, and to show a profit.

John Bloor has succeeded in meeting all three goals and takes great satisfaction in knowing that in some markets there are waiting lists for his motorcycles.