There’s been no shortage of news from Norton in the past few years - much of it bad. But the distressed Brit bike brand looks to have turned the corner of late, after Indian giant TVS (the fourth biggest bike maker in the world) took over from the disgraced former regime under Stuart Garner. There’s a new £40 million Norton factory in Birmingham, bikes are starting to be built properly, and there’s a new management team in place. We spoke to one of them, chief operating officer Christian Gladwell, on the plush Norton stand at the NEC show.
Gladwell isn’t your typical bike firm boss. He was an officer in the Scots Guards and came to Norton from Saatchi, where he’d worked on developing luxury brands like Chanel, Gucci, Burberry and Breitling - as well as helping launch Jay-Z’s cologne range… He’s been riding bikes for years though, and currently owns an MV Agusta Turismo Veloce and a
