Billionaire boss of Triumph Motorcycles pays himself £13m Property baron John Bloor, 80, rescued the brand behind iconic 1960s motorbikes The billionaire owner of Triumph Motorcycles has paid himself a £13m dividend after profits at the business leapt. John Bloor, who made his money in property before rescuing the Triumph brand, took £13m out of his business empire in the 12 months to June, newly filed accounts show. The payout was up from £12m in the previous period. Bloor Homes, his main business, endured a “more challenging” year because of high interest rates. However, Triumph’s pre-tax profits rose by more than £20m to £72.4m. Mr Bloor rescued Triumph Motorcycles, the iconic brand favoured by the likes of Marlon Brando and Steve McQueen, 40 years ago. Founded in 1902, the company created iconic motorcycles such as the Bonneville series during the 1960s, dubbed by fans as the “Bonnie” and named after the salt flats in Utah where speed records were attempted. However, Triumph struggled to compete with more efficient production methods employed by manufacturers abroad, notably Japanese companies such as Honda. Triumph Engineering, as it was originally called, fell into receivership in 1983. Derbyshire-born Mr Bloor, 80, bought the Triumph name and then instructed managers to study Japanese motorbike production before relaunching the business. The company sold more than 88,000 motorcycles last year, accounts show. Triumphs can cost up to £23,600 for the 2.5-litre, 3-cylinder Rocket 3 GT Chrome Edition, although a much more modest 0.4-litre Speed 400 comes in at less than £5,000. Profits leapt because more models with higher margins were delivered. The value of Mr Bloor’s business empire rose from £1.8bn to £2.1bn last year, according to accounts for his holding company Bloor Investments. As well as motorbikes, Mr Bloor’s interests span home building and renting out portable cabins. Sales across the group rose from £2.21bn to £2.25bn last year, while profit before tax slid to £406m from £427m. Average sale prices for homes built by the company fell from £322,000 to £317,000. The cost of building materials also rose, eating into profit margins. Mr Bloor’s ownership of Triumph has not always been plain sailing. In 2002, Triumph’s centenary year, a serious fire destroyed around half of its Hinckley factory. In 2008, the recession and a collapse in the housing market caused Mr Bloor to breach banking covenants on the debt for his company Bloor Holdings, which controls Bloor Homes but also Triumph. However, he was able to renegotiate the loans with banks.
Great the company is doing well and good on him saving it, but what does an 80 year old billionaire need with a £13,000,000 dividend? He’ll not be struggling with the cost of living, but I’ll wager the vast majority (if not all) of the triumph workforce that generated the profit hike are. Be nice to think he was equally dividing that money and putting it in a Christmas card to each and every employee…….. but I doubt that.
Funny enough, my first thought was why not announce to the workforce; YOU are actually doing a cracking job and making it happen; here's a10% pay rise to help everyone with the cost of living crisis, Happy Christmas! My second thought was, greedy or justified?
JB invested a lot of money in rescuing the Triumph brand. The people working in the factories have jobs because of that so I don't begrudge any dividend or bonus he decides to give himself. Millionaires see thousands as the average man sees hundreds and billionaires see millions as most see thousands, it's just the way wealth works. Who knows what he has planned for the £13m or what reward, if any, the staff in the Triumph factories will be getting. People struggling with the COL will probably view such announcements with a certain amount of contempt and I get that, it's human nature but you can't expect wealthy entrepreneurs and Captains of Industry give away their fortunes. The new breed of "influencers" making £££££ for doing absolutely feck all, now that's a different story!!
Don't really care. Just happy he revived the Triumph Brand and made it work so well. Good on you Mr Bloor. Just hope you enjoy your money as much as i enjoy my Triumph's. Joe
13 million is a crazy amount for a guy to pay himself at 80 years old for sure.......what would he spend it on? Maybe he has had another "idea". BUT....... Can you imagine how Banks laughed him out the door when when he wanted to buy Triumph brand. HE`s the one who took the risks (maybe with other investors?), HE`s the one who had sleepless nights wondering if this was going to work as let`s face it NO ONE thought it would in the beginning!! Obviously not forgetting all the brains he employed who turned his idea into a great product. Without them he would`nt have made it but you can also say Bloor gave them all a job. I say Thank you John for taking the risks along the way. We all have have lovely bikes bearing the Triumph name. A name which would have disappeared long ago if not for him. The cheek of copying the Japanese, who`d have thought it eh? John Bloor has earned his profits in my book.....BUT a pay rise/bonus for the factory staff would also have been a great gesture to hear about as said above the COL is biting everyone these days. We are just jealous as few of us have or ever will earn 13 million in our entire working life. I stupidly keep doing the lottery every week but i hope 13million comes my way before i`m 80 mind at least i can pay for a private bathroom in the care home
He took the risk, made the upfront investments of millions£, grew the business with some setbacks, helped to preserve the UK Midlands as a motor manufacturing hub, created many well paid jobs, trains many new apprentices every year in the triumph technical school who will likely go on to have rewarding, successful careers, made a British icon internationally successful again. He deserves every penny and can do whatever he likes with it. What did those who criticise him do you create jobs I wonder.....
I recall vividly the events regarding Triumph's re-emergence, in September 1990, Triumph Motorcycles were reborn when six all-new Hinckley-built bikes were unveiled on the opening day of the Cologne Show in Germany. However it began long before the launch, John Bloor was then 40 and a self made housing magnate, he was one of the interested parties in Triumph, however it was not in the Meriden factory site as many presumed, that had already been sold to Tarmac Homes and demolished in 1984, then redeveloped for housing including Bonneville Close and Daytona Drive, but John Bloor had interest in the motorcycle business itself. John Bloor fought off interest from Claudio Castiglioni’s Cagiva and Harley-Davidson, he bought the Triumph brand and manufacturing rights from the official receiver for £150,000. Operating in secret and with very little reported in the news, very few people were aware of it for the next seven years. The development was undertaken by a number of professional racers, including Steve Tonkin ex TT 250 Junior winner, British Championship winner and many more successes, however all the test riders were sworn to absolute secrecy, and indeed they did not reveal anything at all, years later Steve told me how this came about and it is fascinating, almost something out of a spy novel, the test riders were put up in hotels whilst evaluating the machines, and boy these were manufactured to the very highest standards and to withstand the worst of the British weather. He realised any successful Triumph rebirth would take significant time, straight away he granted a licence, from November 28 1983, to Les Harris’s Racing Spares operation of Newton Abbot in Devon to allow him to continue building the old Meriden T140 Bonneville, mostly out of spares, so maintaining ‘unbroken’ Triumph motorcycle production. Les Harris went on to construct 1255 Bonnies up to 1988 using his redundancy money and savings to fund his project. He visited motorcycle factories around the world, particularly Japan and Europe, he and his team came to the conclusion that a modern, multi-cylinder machine built to exacting hi-tech standards would be required to overcome Triumph’s somewhat tarnished reputation. The first engine was a 1200cc DOHC four, from which short stroke and three-cylinder variants ultimately delivered four engines and six models, and on the test bench by 1987. The following year, still in total secrecy he set up a parent company, ‘Bonneville Coventry Ltd’, changing its name to Triumph Motorcycles following the end of the Les Harris licence. Then in 1988 construction began on a new pioneering motorcycle factory on a 10-acre site in Jacknell Road, Hinckley, reputed to cost £80m and all out of his own personal wealth, although built by his own company, and again in secrecy, and the motorcycling world was completely oblivious to all this. On June 29th1990 out of the blue a select group of British and overseas motorcycling journalists were summoned to the Hinckley factory, they could scarcely believe what they saw, following a tour of the brand-new factory, complete with state of the art computer guided machinery, including robots, they were then shown prototypes of an all-new 750cc three-cylinder machines, those of us that have visited the factory can testify to the very high tech facilities, and the paint plant is light years advanced to what had been previously. His son, Nick Bloor has been CEO since 2011, John Bloor retains 100% ownership of Triumph through its parent company Bloor Holdings Ltd. He was awarded an OBE for services to the motorcycle industry in 1995 and the Royal Automobile Club’s rarely-given Diamond Jubilee Trophy in 2016, this to my knowledge was the last time he spoke in public about the motorcycling company he brought back to life. A man with foresight and vision, a real passion for motorcycling manufacturing, risking his fortune for the re birth of our heritage Triumph Motorcycles. Had Triumph Meriden management listened to the great development geniuses of Dog Hele, Norman Hyde, Les Harris and many many more, some may be unaware that there were multi cylinder engines in development in the sixties, there was a very high revving 250 twin, that would have blown the minds of Japanese manufacturers, but all to no avail, in my view Edward Turner has to take some responsibility for not moving forward, he was always steadfast in the belief that the parallel twin was the way forward, however with tooling becoming worn out, money became an issue, quality control was awful, again down to worn out machinery and tooling. The development team were ahead of their time and produced some fantastic prototype engines and complete bikes, sadly never making it to production, however the development team did a fantastic job with the T100 engine, chassis and suspension, not many will know that it reached 150mph, I have a lot of information on this engine and as time permits I will dig it out and maybe post a little about it, and the Daytona 200 races. Regarding the fire, on the 15th March 2002, as the company was preparing to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Triumph brand, half of the main factory including the assembly area and stores was destroyed by a fire which began at the rear of the facility, this also destroyed production of the TT600, due to be called the TT600R on the newer model, this was a brilliant machine, divisive by it's looks, it was a very good handling machine, and having owned and ridden one it did achieve almost 150mph on the speedo. Motorcycling owes a great deal to John Bloor for all he has achieved, and I for one salute him.
He took the risk, the worry, the ulcers; the sleepless nights but still had the guts to deal with the financial industry to make Triumph a success; he contributed to the human condition and did not take away from it; wonder what the naysayers have built and contributed; he built Triumph factories so others could find income and support themselves; I think in Brazil and Thailand; live long and prosper Mr. Bloor.
Good read. Every day I thank Lori for being my wife. I thank God for my life. I thank John Bloor for my Triumph.
Consider Elon Musk's last public interview and his response to advertisers - that man must own a Triumph or, at least, a Harley.; he built Pay Pal, Tesla, and Space X (Falcon 9 boosters that came back and landed - fantastic) to name some and didn't take any guff from the elite morons. He put his own skin in the game. Oh, yes, let's not forget Twitter and the revival of Truth. I consider Bloor on the same level; flat out guts and don't take no for an answer. Many thanks for my Bonne.
No, Elon Musk does not ride a bike (like millions of other people); he traded his bike for the Falcon 9 rocket; now that takes some cojones. Would you pay to plant your butt on one?? Yet, he does produce factories that employ people that allows them to survive economically; gee, he actually produces something to contribute to human kind - what a novel concept; right up there with Bloor. Hmm, wonder if Ford ever rode a motor bike?
