Still selling, but Triumph is cash poor

Debts more than doubled in the past year for the owner of Triumph Motorcycles, forcing him to refinance in order to pay off about $165 million Cdn.

But it wasn't the motorcycle side of the business that caused problems, and the Triumph brand does not appear to be in trouble.

John Bloor, who brought the British marque back from the dead and built a highly successful motorcycle company in Britain, also owns Bloor Holdings, a home-building company that lost about $95 million last year. The motorcycle side of the business did about $500 million in sales last year, nearly 30 per cent more than the year before, but the house-building loss caused a "technical breach of certain bank covenants," according to a story in the Telegraph newspaper and so Bloor is required to repay $165 million in bank loans within a year.

The loss suffered by the house-building side of the company was caused by the current economic slump and caused an overall loss for Bloor's parent company of about $90 million.

However, the company says it has "adequate resources and facilities" to meet its obligations.

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