Workers at Triumph’s Hinckley factory have been told the company is moving mass production to Thailand and up to 50 UK jobs will be lost. However, Hinckley will become Triumph’s global R&D centre, leading to the creation of more than 20 new design engineer jobs.
A letter to staff from chief executive Nick Bloor said the company was now consulting about UK job losses in areas such as its assembly line, machine shop, weld shop and in IT, as well as a new state-of-the-art paint shop which only opened a couple of years ago.
“Whilst we appreciate that this will be difficult for those affected, please be assured that we will do everything we can to support you,” the company wrote.
Of the 65,000 or so motorcycles produced by Triumph each year, six or seven thousand are made at Hinckley.
The manufacturer said there would still be manufacturing in the Leicestershire plant, but mainly of “more niche, bespoke bikes, taking the number produced there down to around 4500”.
MORE FLEXIBLE
In a statement, Bloor said: “We are now preparing for Triumph’s next wave of strategic growth. We want to maximise the growth opportunity for the brand globally, particularly in the Asian markets.
“This is why we are increasing our design resources here in the UK, and focusing our mass production capabilities in Thailand.
“There will still be manufacturing capability in the UK but the role of our facility in Hinckley will be reconfigured to enable us to create a more flexible and high-value capability.”
The company added: “The move to a more specialist production facility does mean, however, that there will be between 40 and 50 redundancies from the company’s manufacturing workforce in the UK.”
Only last month Triumph announced a new venture with Bajaj Group – one of the biggest companies in India – which will eventually see a new range for the Asian market with a starting price of around £2000.
The companies are working on a range of mid-capacity bikes which will give Triumph a new entry point to high-volume, growing markets across Asia.
The new range will be badged Triumph but built by Bajaj and will see a new engine and bike platform built in the mid-capacity, 200cc-750cc range.