Andover Norton took over when NVT closed down and Dennis Poore bought the spares operation of NVT back from the liquidator. In 1977 he set it up, as part of "new" NVT, in Andover as "Andover Norton International Ltd".
Andover Norton has a valid, exclusive license giving Andover Norton and no other company the right to use the Norton Trademark for the marketing of Genuine Norton Factory Parts for Norton Commando and Dominator type motorcycles built before 2002.
Andover Norton has an agreement with Norton America, the previous owners of the Norton Trademark, confirming that Andover Norton owns the Intellectual Property, sole Copyright, and all other rights on all Norton Dominator and Commando models manufactured before 2002.
Hence the intellectual property on all things Norton Commando and Dominator of the original drawings and tooling can not be taken from Andover Norton by license or any other contract by current Norton trademark owners. Because they do not own it.
Note "Commando" was never used by Norton as a trademark.
It was and is simply a Norton model name. Registration of what was undoubtedly a Norton model name by anybody but the manufacturer could be seen as an action in bad faith, in full knowledge it was not the registrant's intellectual property.
It is of no interest to us as we have used that name to correctly describe our parts for over a decade before an application for registration of that "trademark" was made, hence have prior, worldwide use.
Andover Norton Ltd was founded in 1977 to house all Norton, Triumph and BSA Spare Parts that came from the stores of Norton Villiers Triumph for Norton Motorcycles, and all BSA/Triumph models built recently by those two manufacturers, in an industrial unit in Andover, Hants.
During the summer all stock was moved from the Midlands to Andover, and the warehouse in North Way officially started work by 3rd November, 1977.
As the name indicates, the company is first and foremost the source for all genuine Norton spares and, as original stock was sold off, Andover Norton started to re-manufacture new Norton parts.
Andover Norton has all the works drawings and tooling to manufacture parts to original, and often improved, specification.
Andover Norton carried on when Norton stopped Norton spares production in Wolverhampton.
In 1979, the decision was made to add the distribution of general motorcycle parts and accessories- brake pads, spark plugs and tyres- to the parts operation.
The picture (left) shows 1978 prospectus.
Our (now retired) Managing Director, Nick Hopkins, can just be seen in a picture in the 1978 prospectus, studying a parts list.
Yes, he stayed with the company for a while- in fact from Day1 until his retirement in March, 2013!
He was probably looking for the parts required by a German customer, who called frequently, coming up from Southampton University, where he studied at the time, on his John Player Norton Replica or his 1956 Norton ES2.
Mr.J.Seifert was buying Norton parts for himself and friends in Hamburg- today, he is a director of Andover Norton.
This was continued until 1982, when Mike Jackson, with the help of Dennis Poore, bought the company and continued the general parts and accessories distribution.
Norton Motors (1978) Ltd in Shenstone for a few years.It was managed for most of its time there by Richard Negus.
Richard had worked as draughtsman at Norton in Commando production times, and a lot of our original drawings of Commando parts were drawn by him.
From Spares Manager he went on to become "Chief of Motorcycles" at Norton Motors Ltd/Shenstone.
of our sister company Norton Motors Ltd.
Norton Motors Ltd, under its MD Dennis Austin, started a "Brand Awareness" programme in 1985, using the "Norton Genuine Factory Parts" logo, thereby distinguishing the genuine parts made to original or improved specification from the pirate parts of poor quality that are flooding the market from all over the globe.
Unfortunately policing of the Norton trademark has been erratic in recent years so Andover Norton registered the "Andover Norton" Logo to distinguish its Genuine Norton Factory Parts from the dubious offerings flooding the market.
Hence we have ceased to use the "Norton" scroll and the "Genuine Factory Parts" logo and now mark all Genuine Norton Factory Parts with our good name and Andover Norton logo.
If something looks like a Norton packing card and does not have our name and address on it it has nothing to do with the Norton factory tradition and also nothing to do with our quality standards.
Others try to profit from our reputation. Beware of imitations!
Owners change, the Company stays!
When Norton got into financial difficulties through the machinations of its management team led by Philippe Le Roux, the Norton Commando and Dominator spares stock was sold back to Andover Norton, then owned by Mike Jackson and William Colquhoun, in 1991. The stock was once more moved down to Andover and, when Andover Norton was acquired by the Regal Group in 1994, the spares moved to Southampton.
Nothing, however, is more constant than change, so in 2007 Norton Motors Ltd, recreated by said Richard Negus and Joe Seifert a decade earlier, re-acquired Andover Norton and set it up in Hungerford near Andover, managed by Nick Hopkins from 1991 till he retired in 2013, and Phil Albutt, who came to Andover Norton by way of BSA in Blockley, and became our Managing Director in April, 2013.
Today, Andover Norton is the world's biggest cache of spare parts for Norton motorcycles.
Andover Norton sells more Genuine Norton Factory Spare Parts for Norton Commandos, Dominators, and other models than anybody else in the World- not only because we manufacture them all and we sell them all, but by absolute turnover.
All our parts are to factory drawings- beware of imitations and false claims!
To make sure you know you are getting the real deal we have introduced a new label for our wares in 2016 as our old ones were aped, unpoliced and unstopped by our licensor, by third parties.
The "Andover Norton" logo is our copyright so cannot be imitated or pirated as opposed to other marques we do not own and control.
Our Genuine Norton Factory Parts are all covered by our product liability insurance.