Triumph looks to boost British bike production

[advrider]

Triumph is back in business in the UK, or headed that way. Not that it ever went out of business, certainly not—but for years, it has been manufacturing a lot of its bikes in Asia. Now, it’s going to reverse that trend, increasing its production back where the company started in Merry Olde England.

Several moto-media outlets report Triumph is expanding its production capacity at its headquarters in Leicestershire. With the new factory space, Triumph plans to build another 15,000 bikes in the UK annually, eventually working up to 20,000 machines annually produced in the new space.

That’s a big change for Triumph—not long ago, the company was laying off a lot of workers, and shipping its business to Asia.

What’s behind this expansion? Simple: Triumph has seen a massive increase in demand for its bikes, and at the same time, COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the company’s supply chain. Just like every other motorcycle manufacturer, Triumph is facing problems due to its design-in-one-country, manufacture-in-another-country, sell-in-another-continent business model. No doubt Triumph figures that ramping up production in the UK will make it easier to sell bikes in Europe; it’s simply a matter of rowing them across the English Channel, instead of waiting for a freighter from Asia.

Production is supposed to start with the Tiger 1200 adventure bike (makes sense, with plenty of demand for ADVs in Europe), with other models added to the lineup in coming months and years. Triumph has not said anything about building an electric manufacturing on this new production line, but given the British government’s interest in developing battery bike production in-country, we would be very shocked if Triumph wasn’t making an electric street bike in this factory space in coming years.

One question we do have, though: If this production line is aimed at addressing increased Euro demand (as Triumph says), what about the factories in Thailand? Demand is also ramping up in Asia; will Triumph also increase production there, to build machines for China, etc.? For that matter, what about North America? We’re facing the same supply chain issues as everyone else, maybe even worse. It sure would be nice if Triumph (and all the other OEMs) would ramp up production to send a few extra machines our way.

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