8 March 1975 Ailing British manufacturer is taken over by a workers’ cooperative
The home-made banners on the wall outside the Meriden motorcycle factory continued to shout their message yesterday. “Triumph,” they said, “stays at Meriden, where the legend was born.” The difference is that, instead of the cold defiance which the words have represented for the past 18 months, they now state the facts of the situation.
Triumph is staying at Meriden — at least for the time being — following the success of the workers’ cooperative in being allowed to buy the plant from the former owners, Norton-Villiers-Triumph. After the signing ceremony in London on Thursday, when the business passed legally into the hands of its workers, the cooperative yesterday began to face up to the cold reality of running a factory for an industry which is also fighting for its life against Japanese competition.