We?ve all seen the headlines and we?ve all seen Stuart Garner on the news. The crook that stole all his employees pensions, took deposits for bikes that didn?t exist, fobbed people off with below par machinery and all but ran Norton Motorcycles into the ground. But that?s all yesterday?s news. Since Indian company TVS Motor Group purchased Norton Motorcycles, things have been looking good for the British bike manufacturer. Well, they?ve been looking better anyway. Because they couldn?t really look much worse, could they"

Earlier this year it was announced that they?d taken on a new production facility, as well as a new CEO to steer them through the coming years. So to find out which direction Robert Hentschel, the new Norton CEO, is planning on steering one of the oldest British motorbike manufacturers, I popped into their West Midlands factory to have a nosey around, and a quick chinwag with the big man.
I started with the question on everyone?s lips?

44T: What are you doing to solve the problems you?ve inherited from the Stuart Garner episode"

RH: We have spent a lot of time, money and effort to fully understand the problems. I cannot talk about all the problems, but one of the main problems we had was the quality of the motorcycles that were coming out of the previous facility. The bikes weren?t developed with the proper processes. We have done a lot of testing to find out exactly the quality of the products, including testing things until som...