The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on the automotive industry and even the big-ones haven’t been immune to the side effects. Triumph Motorcycles has announced that it’s going to lay-off 400 employees across its factories in Hinckley, UK and Thailand along with the assembly operations located in India and Brazil.
The Hinckley-based factory said the cuts are the result of a big drop in sales due to the coronavirus pandemic. At the minute, it employs around 1,000 people in the UK and 2,500 people around the world. That means the losses equate to a 6.25 per cent reduction in staff numbers.
Speaking about the news, Triumph Motorcycles’ Chief Executive Officer, Nick Bloor said, “These are not only challenging times for everyone as individuals, but also for the company. No business could have anticipated the scale of the coronavirus crisis and its economic consequences. The pandemic has caused significant damage to the global motorcycle market, and, sadly, we have to respond and react accordingly as both a responsible employer and as a business that invests for the future. These are not easy decisions to make, especially when individuals’ livelihoods are affected; however regrettably the scale of impact of Covid-19 necessitates us to restructure now in order to protect the long term health and success of the Triumph brand and business.”
Meanwhile, back in India, Triumph is betting big with a slew of launches scheduled for 2020, starting with the Tiger 900 this month, followed by the Street Triple R, Rocket 3 GT, Bonneville T100 and T120 Black editions. Triumph has already opened booking for the Tiger 900 which will be sold in three variants including the fully loaded, off-road centric Rally Pro and even the road-biases GT Pro. Considering the popularity of the Tiger 800 in the country, we expect the Tiger 900 to do well in India and bring some respite for the UK-based bikemaker.
Source - MoreBikes