Melling Consultancy Design Statement Regarding Norton Motorcycles
15 November 1999
Melling Consultancy Design Statement Regarding Norton Motorcycles
LANCS, England, Nov. 12 -- Alwyn Melling, on behalf of
Melling Consultancy Design, of Dimension House, 43 Mellor Street, Rochdale,
Lancashire, would wish to issue the following statement:
Following recent publicity regarding the contractual relationship with the
Norton Group of Companies, MCD would wish to make the following statement in
reply.
On 1st October 1999, Norton obtained a Court Order seeking to remove items
relating to the Norton project from the premises of MCD. It was a term of
that Order that the bikes be preserved and that no work should be carried out
on them. It was also ordered that Norton should not make any press comment
with regards to the proceedings. MCD are advised by their Solicitors that
Norton had breached that Order and in doing so are in contempt of Court and
that the officers of their company could now be liable to a financial penalty
or be imprisoned.
The case came back before the Court on 8th October 1999 when MCD were able
to present their own case. The Court found that there was a triable issue
between the parties and as a result, pending the final hearing, all the
intellectual property together with hardware, which included the bikes, was
placed in an independent storage warehouse. The Court further ordered that
neither party is to carry out any work on the same, which will now obviously
jeopardise the furtherance or completion of the project.
In relation to the proceedings, MCD has lodged its own counter claim which
is over 1,000,000 pounds but MCD fears that due to the financial impecuniosity
of Norton it is unlikely that they will be able to meet this claim. Norton in
their own press release on 27th October advised that they have only 60,000
pounds left within the company. The company owes suppliers well in excess of
this figure and thus in reality they are now an insolvent company and it is
unlikely that either the suppliers or MCD will be paid.
MCD very much regrets that the demise of Norton will signal the end of
these projects but believes poor management has yet again seen the downfall of
a motorcycle company. Norton has had a succession of managerial changes and
the lack of stability together with finance and a real understanding of the
motorcycle business are, unfortunately, likely to be their downfall.
MCD has noted in recent press reports that Norton has made detrimental
comments about the work we have carried out. MCD maintain that its work is of
the highest standard and that the tooling in respect of the bikes had been
completed and prototype bikes tested. Norton purport to have appointed
independent engineers, namely, a company called Vepro, to carry out an
evaluation of the project. MCD had not previously heard of Vepro as they are
in effect a start-up company with no track record and thus MCD are not at
liberty to comment on their credibility. However, no formal report has ever
been produced and MCD are advised by their Solicitors that any such evaluation
would again constitute a contempt of Court as they would be in breach of the
original Court Order. MCD believe it is unlikely that such a report exists
and it is unfortunate that the ailing management team are now seeking to find
an excuse for their own shortcomings.