This history of British motorcycle manufacturers in the second half of the 20th century is a convoluted affair. In the 1960’s, Dennis Poore, who already had Villiers under his belt, acquired Associated Motor Cycles, who owned Norton, AJS, James Francis-Barnett and Matchless, creating Norton Villiers.
With BSA, who owned Triumph by then, facing financial collapse in 1972, the British Government bailed them out on the proviso that it merged with Norton Villiers. And so did it begat Norton Villiers Triumph (NVT) in 1973.
Dennis set about restructurng NVT, making 3,500 people (two-thirds of the workforce) redundant. This didn’t go down well and the workers staged a two-year sit-in leading to the creation of the Meriden Cooperative, making Triumphs and selling them to NVT.
By 1978, NVT was gone. By 1983, Meriden was gone,. in 1987, Dennis was gone, too, aged 70.
