Britain’s biggest motorbike manufacturer, Triumph Motorcycles, has announced a restructure caused by the global Coronavirus pandemic. It will see 240 jobs made redundant in the UK, where there are currently around 1000 staff based at the Leicestershire headquarters.
The news was recently announced by the historic British manufacturer which has a large factory in Hinckley, with the plunge in large capacity motorcycle sales being blamed.
A consultation period has now started with the affected UK workforce which is expected to lose around 240 positions out of a global total of 400 job losses.
Triumph earlier this year confirmed it would be expanding mass production manufacturing in Thailand where the company already has a large factory. These latest job cuts have been taken to ‘protect the long term health of the business.’
The firm’s official statement reads: “Sales in the larger 500cc plus motorcycle segment, in key markets such as France, Italy, Germany, the USA and the UK have fallen by between 40 and 65 per cent over the past three months during what would normally be the peak season for sales.
“Although Triumph sales have outperformed this significant decline to some degree, the market is forecast to remain considerably down on pre-Covid 19 levels as a direct result of the economic conditions created by it.”
It added that these new steps would help it prepare the “foundations for future global growth in the decades to come”.
Chief Executive Nick Bloor said: “These are not only challenging times for everyone as individuals, but also for the company.
“No business could have anticipated the scale of the coronavirus crisis and its economic consequences. The pandemic has caused significant damage to the global motorcycle market, and, sadly, we have to respond and react accordingly as both a responsible employer and as a business that invests for the future.
“These are not easy decisions to make, especially when individuals’ livelihoods are affected; however regrettably the scale of impact of Covid 19 necessitates us to restructure now in order to protect the long term health and success of the Triumph brand and business.”
Earlier this year Triumph announced that it was cutting back on production in the UK, with the Hinckley factory assembling only high-end models like the exclusive Triumph Factory Custom (TFC) range.
In recent years, Triumph has built a total of around 60,000 motorcycle annually, with about 6000 to 7000 of these assembled in Britain. An assembly plant in Brazil is reported to assemble around 5500 bikes from CKD (complete knock down) kits and the remainder are manufactured at the Thai factory.
The British company has also signed an agreement with Indian company Bajaj, which will see the two organisations work together on a range of machines smaller than the models currently in the Triumph range.
