Triumph doing well?
The latest annual results for Triumph Motorcycles (to 30 June 2021) display a remarkable degree of recovery from the Covid pandemic’s early depredations. But the brand may have done even better, according to BDN's Financial Editor Roger Willis.
According to the Triumph Motorcycles directors’ report, overall turnover during this 12-month period grew by 25.8% to £502.3m. Within that, the UK revenue contribution was 18.7% up to £69.9m. The rest of Europe yielded a 27.3% rise to £234.1m. North America added 58.4% to £116.5m, while the rest of the world fell by 1.1% to £81.8m.
Global yearly motorcycle sales volume stacked on an impressive 44.6% to 70,838. Some 86.1% of these machines were sold overseas.
But distribution and admin costs still overwhelmed a gross profit of £50.2m to result in an operating loss of £6.5m and net loss of £7.9m - recovering from a horrendous operating loss of £44.2m and net loss of £35.8m in the previous fiscal year.
However, the annual strategic and directors’ reports covering the same period for Bloor Investments, the ultimate parent of Triumph Motorcycles, plus large-scale house construction and plant hire businesses, tell an entirely different story.
This version of events kicks off by saying: “The year’s profitability to 30 June 2021 has been primarily driven by the £95m turnaround of the Triumph business from a loss off £40m to a profit of £55m.”
All the numbers for what is identified as Triumph Motorcycles Group are variant. Triumph’s turnover apparently climbed by 27.8% to £613.2m, delivering a pre-tax profit of £50.1m - against a loss of £40m a year earlier. Sales volume was 40.5% up to 76,438 bikes and 88.6% of them were purchased overseas.
Presumably such figures came from inputs to which nobody outside the enigmatic John Bloor’s inner sanctum is party. Could they be associated with recently migrating to an offshore tax jurisdiction? As of August 2021, Bloor senior relocated from rural Wales to take up residence in Guernsey.
