Norton Motorcycles collapse. More information comes to light.

Following last week’s news that Norton Motorcycles has gone into administration, more information has come to light which indicates that the latest collapse of the iconic British brand was a long time coming.  

• -Metro Bank has confirmed it has spent months working with Norton to find a solution before bringing in the administrators as a last resort.

• -The Pensions Ombudsman is considering further complaints from investors who put their savings into three pensions schemes linked to the Castle Donington business. 228 individuals invested in the schemes, which in turn invested into Norton.

• -DHL International issued a petition to wind up Norton Motorcycles back in August last year – but the petition was soon withdrawn.

• -The Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership provided a £750,000 loan to support construction of a new factory at the company’s headquarters. The factory is built, but stands empty and the LLEP joins the list of creditors.

Despite reports suggesting Norton’s HMRC debt was the cause of the collapse – BDO, the accounting firm overseeing the administration, was actually brought in by Norton’s banker Metro Bank. Metro has said they had spent months working with Norton to try and find a solution to the problems – before deciding that bringing in the administrators was in the best interests of all concerned.

A Metro Bank spokeswoman said: “Having worked closely with the company for many months, we have acted in the best interest of the company’s stakeholders and employees, and on the basis of independent advice. We have therefore made the difficult decision to request the appointment of administrators.”