Norton is in the last with a debt of 350,000 euros that must be paid to the Treasury in less than 15 days

2023 Author: Nicholas Abramson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 02:44

Since Stuart Garner, current CEO of Norton MotorcyclesAfter the British motorcycle firm recovered in 2008, it was up to the air to know if this brand with almost 120 years of history would succeed.

Twelve years later, the truth is that Norton is not going through its best economic moment and this has been confirmed by Garner when he acknowledges that he is under the watchful eye of a consulting firm who is going to dedicate body and soul to organizing the company so that return the 353,000 euros that they owe to the Treasury.

February 12 is the deadline

Since Garner has failed to take the reins of Norton with the effectiveness that he wanted, he has had no choice but to let the Belgian consultancy BDO get down to work and recover a company that is in danger despite the attempts to get it afloat and the amount of news that has come out of the ranks of the Leicestershire house in less than four years.

Although now the debt has remained at those 353,000 euros, the truth is that amounted to 712,083 euros, although it was possible to settle almost half at the time. From Norton they assure that a part of the remaining money (up to 160,000 euros) could be paid with the amount resulting from the tax relief for dedicating its resources to R&D (about 15.4 million euros) during the last three years.

The point is that according to the Norton director himself, the payment of the deductions has been long delayed. Hence, they have been granted an extension of 63 days to cover the rest of the debt. This period ends on February 12.

The last we knew of Norton was from November 2019. In that month the British company announced a crowdfunding campaign in which it requested the donation of 1.2 million euros, necessary both to expand its motorcycle production and to fulfill the deliveries of the mounts to its customers.

At that time it was leaked that a single investor and lover of the brand could have paid the entire amount. However, from the news that reaches us now, this strategy was not enough to get Norton out of the quagmire.

It must be recognized that the British firm in these three years has tried actively and passively and has not stopped releasing new models: the Norton V4 RR and SS, the Norton Commando 961 California or the 650 cc range (the Atlas Nomad and Ranger or the Norton Superlight) is the proof that the British have moved their thing.

They even had time to appear and stand out at the Tourist Trophy with John McGuinness and Peter Hickman. However, it has not been enough to avoid his problems with the Treasury.

We will see if between now and February they can cover the debt they have pending and, more importantly, if that allows them to continue rowing to overcome and continue selling their iconic models. Perhaps if I adopted the Triumph or Harley-Davidson strategy of making more accessible mid-size models in the near future things would change.

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