The MCN Dave Taylor Lifetime Achievment Award goes to John Bloor for Triumph

John Bloor was born to a coal-mining family in a small village in Derbyshire and plagued with poor health left school at just 15 to pursue a career in plastering. Yet fast-forward thirty years he has succeeded enormously in restoring, reviving and revitalising Triumph Motorcycles.

 Buying into the Triumph brand was almost an accident for Bloor, who whilst attending the auction of the site of the former Triumph factory in 1983 (which he initially intended to use the site for housing construction) - he decided to buy the collapsed Triumph brand. He invested over £60million into rebuilding the brand, opening the Hinckley factory in 1991. After a fire in the factory in 2002, production was stopped until the factory was rebuilt as one of the most efficient motorcycle factories in the world - producing 46,000 motorcycles every year.

Without John Bloor, Triumph motorcycles today would almost certainly be a very different brand, and not the one we all share great admiration for - perhaps not even in existance at all. The OBE John Bloor was awarded for his service to the motorcycle industry along with the sought-after MCN lifetime achievment award are stellar proof of his acheivments!

What the judges said: "The man who recreated the Triumph name 20 years ago has taken his idea of bringing back the most iconic name in motorcycling and made it one of the biggest bike manufacturers in the world.
 Hard but fair, John Bloor is reputed to be an inspirational man to work for and despite his elevated status at the helm of one of the world's coolest brands he has been known to sweep the floor and he personally signs off every new model."

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