Save the Triumph Bonneville! - The Inside Story of the Meriden Workers' Co-op [Hardcover]

This beautifully produced hardback book is the true story of how the Triumph motorcycle company was run as a Workers' Co-Operative during the nineteen-seventies and nineteen-eighties.

The ending of this story will be known to anyone with even a passing interest in motorcycles or in British industry. Ultimately, the company was liquidated from 1983 onwards. However, the reader's knowledge of this sad outcome does not diminish this enticing story. John Rosamond has done a highly effective job of drawing the reader in to share in the excitement and frustrations of the co-operative venture at the Meriden factory.

John Rosamond writes the story largely in the first person. He is the former chairman of the Triumph Workers' Co-Op and it becomes clear that he is a remarkable character even though the book is written with an almost complete absence of egotism or self-justification. John travelled the rare path from factory-floor welder to chairman of a much-loved company. The name "Triumph" is almost a household word for a perceived golden age of transport. He writes detailed historical prose with an amiable honesty that inspires confidence that he is hiding nothing from the reader.

The detail that John includes inspires one of my few criticisms of this superbly illustrated and packaged book. The small size of the print that is describing frequently complex industrial negotiations can be tiring to read and I suggest all readers accept that this book will take a considerable time to finish. Some of the extracts from letters or documents of the time might have been easier to understand if they had been printed on separate pages, for instance. I assume that there were some publishing constraints on the eventual size of the book. On that note, it can certainly be said to be excellent value for it's cover price since it contains 442 pages that are packed with information and photographs.

The illustrations and photographs are superb. The book has colour photographs every few pages and the end-papers are a photograph plus a technical drawing of the factory. It is a very handsome package by any standards that inspires a firm confidence this is the definitive version of the Triumph Co-Op story and will not be superceded.
Sometimes, John's humility led me to feel unsatisfied that I have learnt the full story. John Rosamond is clearly a kind-hearted character and an appeaser by nature. That must have made him the perfect individual to lead a Workers' Co-Operative but I have a longing to know what he really thought about some of the people and incidents within the book. What did John think about controversial characters such as Brenda Price or Geoffrey Robinson? Did he feel frustrated when trivial issues such as the opening times of the Triumph social club were debated at meetings during a time when the factory was heavily indebted and failing to meet production targets? How did he get on with the politicians that he met? Of course, John is far too polite to reveal too much of his feelings.

There is fascinating subplot concerning Triumph's sales to the police and armed forces in various African countries. I knew very little about the African Triumphs and it is one of the most fascinating parts of the story. Some aspects of these sales and subsequent servicing must have been thoroughly frustrating but the author reveals little about how he felt about these difficulties. Perhaps if he was the type of character to make his feelings known he would never have been able to combine the jobs of welder and chairman.

The story of the African sales left this reviewer wondering how classic Triumphs are still in these African countries awaiting discovery by collectors.

The book is fascinating in it's descriptions of how new models were introduced even as the factory was effectively dying. These new models seem to have been well-received by reviewers and motorcyclists of the day. The photographs show how attractive these bikes were and the engineering modifications applied at the factory were clearly remarkable. It would have been very welcome to read a little more about who bought the Triumph bikes of the period. The bikes clearly sold in their thousands even during severe recessions and maintained cult status in the USA but it is never quite clear whether they were being bought as collectibles, playthings or as day-to-day transport. The sumptuous special editions must have proved a valuable investment.

This reviewer read the book as someone with little knowledge of British motorcycles but with an interest in British industrial history and politics. It is of necessity a political book with a partisan and valuable foreword by the charismatic, forward-thinking politician Tony Benn. The rest of the book is not political in a polemical sense or a party political way but the story it tells is charged with politics. It becomes clear that the factory was an important political pawn at a time of changing economic philosophies. I was interested to learn that the Conservative government continued to provide financial support for the factory when the "new broom" of Thatcherism swept the British factory floors of the early eighties.

The concept of the Workers' Co-Op must have posed a thorny dilemma for both the Labour and Conservative governments of the time. There were clearly aspects of the Labour party such as Tony Benn who saw the Co-Ops as an ultimate outcome of the Labour party's political aims. However, I have no doubt that there was a view by some in the Labour party that the Co-Op should have been nationalised rather than running autonomously with favourable state-financing.

Likewise, the Co-Op reveals one of the many paradoxes of Thatcherism. If a strand of that classically liberal philosophy holds that the members of the working class should be encouraged to form their own businesses as part of widespread enterprise within society rather than being little more than drones in sprawling nationalised businesses then the Co-Op in it's idiosyncratic way should have been encouraged as a practical example of that philosophy. For instance, John Rosamond is an inspiring example of British workman pulling himself up "by his bootstraps". He literally "gets on his bike and looks for work"! However, the running of a Co-Op and in the case of Triumph it's origins in grass-roots rebellion against a discredited owner, necessitates the collectivism that is distasteful to Thatcherism.

A key theme is that the Triumph employees were producing a widely admired product that was popular in key export markets. As a reader, I could feel the frustration of everyone involved in the Co-Op as they produced a good quality product that could never seem to yield enough to make the factory financially viable.

This brings up an intriguing question that is never fully answered. There is mention in the foreword by Tony Benn that other co-operatives were in existence at the same time as Triumph. Sadly, the book makes only passing mention of the other co-ops. I was left wondering how many other co-operatives continued to function after Triumph was liquidated and whether they were a success.

No doubt John Rosamond does not feel that it is his job to stray outside the Meriden story and he would not claim to be a historian although he clearly has the skills to be one. It is sad that John was born twenty years too early to be part of that generation that benefitted from wider access to higher education and to greater respect for subjects such as business or management studies.

That brings up another question that interested this reviewer. Although John describes his role in the long process of winding up the Triumph company, he does not discuss in detail what work he did when the Co-Op ended. John mentions that he was later employed by the "reborn" Triumph brand that is in production today. I hope that in future John will be able to publish the story of this role and his subsequent life.

Despite the winding-up of the factory, John tells us enough to show that there was something of a happy ending to the Triumph Co-Operative story. The name of the brand was effectively given to someone who could be relied on to resurrect the Triumph name on a range of British bikes. That it is still possible to buy a brand-new Triumph motorbike today is the greatest of a number of admirable legacies of the Triumph Co-Op.

This really is a book which all bike fans should read - in fact anyone vaguely interested in bikes, industry and politics in the 70s. Most of us 'old bikers' think that we know what happened with the Meriden Co-operative, but we don't even know half of the real story.
Written by a guy who was part of the unfolding story, first as a welder and later as Chairman of the business, the book is written impartially and gives a real understanding of the numerous problems experienced, and often overcome,by a bunch of people who lived for the Triumph business.
It is far from a 'heavy' read, more a history which involves the reader all the way and is hard to put down. Well worth a read.

An honest account of the of a determined effort to keep an iconic motorcycle in production. Based on factual evidence unvarnished by either hindsight or personal bias written by the Chairman of the worker's Co-operative.Essential reading for anyone interested in the history of the marque. Also gives an interesting insight to the re-launch of the marque under John Bloor at Hinckley. The author can be excused for confusing the details of the collapse of BSA-Triumph in 1971, the rescue bid by Barclays Bank and the Government inspired shotgun marriage with Norton Villers in 1973 but it does not detract from his story of what happended after the 19th November 1973.An interesting and thought provoking read.