Press Release | November 11, 2021
Norton opens its new 73,000 sq-ft facility in Solihull, Birmingham in the West Midlands County of England.
This is a press release from Norton…
Solihull, UK (November 11, 2021) – We’ve been keeping our new headquarters a secret for most of 2021, but now we can officially reveal the Norton facility in full scale. Having returned to our roots in the West Midlands, Norton is now positioned to begin executing our ambitious plans for production. Our new 73,000sq ft facility is complete with state-of-the-art equipment and the capacity to manufacture up to 8000 motorcycles per year. And we’re only just getting started…
The Norton Showroom
Our facility was built within just eighteen months of TVS ownership, signalling their clear commitment and investment in Norton. With the creation of many highly-skilled jobs, we have over doubled in size and expanded our leadership team with all departments housed under one roof. We’re proud to call it the most advanced facility in our 123-year history, transforming the way we work to produce truly remarkable and iconic motorcycles. From the showroom to the production line, every detail has been carefully considered to represent our vision for the future success of Norton.
VIDEO | Norton Motorcycles Announce New HQ
Heritage is an important part of our story
More than just a building, our headquarters embodies the essence of Norton with the customer experience at the heart of it all. Our showroom features Norton motorcycles under spotlight surrounded by our heritage bikes and prints of racing icons and famous Norton fans on the walls. Through a viewing window, you can look straight into our servicing area at the team at work, and on the righthand side you can see all the way across the production floor through our inspection light tunnel. Across production, every specialist room in the factory is complete with viewing windows for total transparency, from the quality lab to the engine build room and through to fabrication. The only thing not visible is our new global design and R&D hub, where work on product definition, 3D CAD and visualization for future models is ongoing.
We will not compromise on quality
The headquarters unites our staff and this has developed a strong company culture consisting of passionate employees all driven by the same desire: to see beautiful Norton motorcycles on the road again. What’s more, the team is empowered to excel because of the processes set up in the factory itself; complete part traceability is captured upon delivery to our stores, before key components are examined with specialist equipment to monitor quality and adherence to specifications—in just six months alone, we have carried out detailed inspection on over 7,500 individual components.
Hand-welding to perfection
Within the production area, TVS has invested significantly in modern equipment and tooling to improve the production processes for our motorcycles, with every stage designed with quality and consistency in mind. In fabrication, frame tubes are inspected before being polished and then released to be welded in-house by our expert welders. Finally, frames are then polished by hand to give them their complete finish and shine. Even more exciting, we now have our own in-house non-destructive and destructive testing laboratory where we carefully inspect and test our welding consistency and integrity.
The new Norton V4SV has been completely re-engineered
In terms of size and scale, we could store up to 20,000 Norton motorcycles if they were stacked side by side and wheel to wheel – that’s 26 miles of Norton! That being said, we’ve given ourselves ample space to organize ourselves effectively. The layout itself was designed to optimize sustainability and reduce waste, creating a mostly open-plan production floor that gives substantial space for manufacturing and adding additional build stations if we need to. This flexibility allows built engines to feed directly from the engine clean room through to the assembly line where frames, suspension, fuel tanks and body work are fitted. At the end of its journey, every bike goes through a testing cycle on the rolling road, followed by a final examination in our light tunnel and inspection area before being collected or delivered to the customer. All our bikes begin and end with a quality inspection, from parts to end-of-line completion.
“The new headquarters is the perfect platform to re-energize our business as we lead the Norton brand to onward success. It demonstrates our unwavering commitment to the motorcycles we build, signalling that we will not compromise on quality and we will continue to ensure that our high standards are always met. Norton is now fit for the future, creating an innovative and sustainable business model which will see us producing world-class motorcycles that are true to the unrivaled legacy of Norton.” ~Norton Motorcycles CEO, Dr. Robert Hentschel
VIDEO | Norton HQ build Time-lapse
Our design philosophy is the DNA of all Nortons
We are now reaching the end of our re-engineering phase of the Norton V4SV and finalizing our long term product plan. Norton is back and here to stay. We have an indomitable spirit and we’re united by a desire to build truly exceptional motorcycles. Norton is unafraid to challenge the status quo, innovating for the future of mobility whilst staying true to our British heritage to deliver unique and inspiring riding experiences.
For more information, visit www.nortonmotorcycles.com
