[Closed] New £100M Brompton Factory

Crikey.

Great company, but I’ll never understand why the chap who started it named it after the term for a disappointing fart?

BROMPTON

A bromton is that which is said to have been committed when you are
convinced you are about to blow off with a resounding trumpeting noise in a
public place and all that acually slips out is a tiny 'pfpt'.

named it after the term for a disappointing fart?

😀 but I think Brompton bicycles predate the Meaning of Liff being published

I really hope it works out for them but depending how they finance it, it’s a very big “bet” for the company and will consume all of their profit for about 8-12 years of sales at current volumes.

If there are cost overruns on the construction or a downturn in sales it could put them in a very difficult position.

but I think Brompton bicycles predate the Meaning of Liff being published

Published maybe, but he must have been thinking them up for years!

They're looking for design engineers if anyone's interested. Saw an advert on LI today.

Exciting. It is a big bet but I like their thinking that this is a huge opportunity to really address the problems that face many city dwellers.

Good news, hope the investment pays off. Be a brilliant factory tour.

Brompton have come on loads in the last 20 years, the new t line is 4k, they are v good bikes for cities and commuting. Any more you are on the wrong bike.

And there’s a interesting feature on Brompton on GCN+ at the mo if anyone’s interested.

All three of us in this household have one. I hope the new factory goes hand in hand with some much needed upgrades to the existing models and some new models. There are ten years between two of our Bromptons but all the obvious flaws have been kept. You can build a titanium Brompton that weighs about 3kgs less with parts from Ali etc., Brompton need to do similar. It seems to me they have two markets but only one product: there are the commuters who want something not too expensive and don't mind idiosyncratic gears and poor brakes, and then there are those with deeper pockets who would love to spend more on a bling lightweight with quality components and better gearing if they could.

The current standard gearing is poor. I've converted mine to 3x3 but it's still crude with limited range. One ride through a short flood last summer and we filled two three speeds with water and one then refused to freewheel properly. My XT equipped MTBs have been repeatedly submerged without water getting anywhere it shouldn't.

Despite those flaws the concept is ace, hop on a TGV with the Brompton in a stardard SNCF size bag over the shoulder, a Borough bag over the other shoulder and pedal away from the arrival station after a couple of minutes of assmebly and stowing.

There are ten years between two of our Bromptons but all the obvious flaws have been kept

We replaced our c10 year old pair c2 years ago and there were improvements to almost every part. I think part of the issue is that they use a fair few custom parts to enable the fold - as they've got larger those have become better made. Hopefully they can step that up again - the new four speed mech model and ti models suggest that's happening...

There is some weird crap on them still though - WTF is that saddle clamp arrangement all about? I've been meaning to replace the upper part of my telescopic post with a standard seat post again. that reminds me to go measure it....

It's a big bet but if they don't do it the might look back at 5-10 years , see how constrained their sales are by limited facilities and think sadly at an opportunity missed. Good luck to them

They are not borrowing, and the West London site they leave is worth a mint.

What's changed between 2011 and 2021 bikes:

The brake levers are better, the brakes are the same.
The shifters, I'm not going to say they've improved as one of the new ones sticks.
The rims, a bit, they're still not exactly up market.
The chainset, but I just replace with a 110mm bolt circle Shimano so I can fit a smaller 34 ring for touring, along with a BBUN72 rather than the low quality standard BB.
The saddle, a bit, I change it anyway, it's not to my taste and Madame refused to sit on the original.

What hasn't:

That 3 speed hub on the 2x3. I had a bike with one in the 60s, still the same with all the same faults: heavy, clunky, huge gaps, runs rough, not sufficiently sealed.
The 120mm rear dropout spacing which makes changing that hub for Shimano, Sachs or Rohloff problematic.
The rear derailleur on the 2 speed and 2x3, properly Heath Robinson with a crazy fiddly cable arrangement that fills with dirt and sticks. It can be made to cover three cogs with an appropriate shifter (an old 6-speed Suntour thumb shifter in my case) but I'm sure they could do better.
The tension arm. Mine arrived with one of the jockey wheels cracked from new. It cheap, it's naff, it's fragile, it's plasticky and the jockey wheels clog with dirt in no time. They require constant attention to keep them clean and turning smoothly.
Same quick releases on the frame/seat post, same bizarre and heavy seat clamp, same steel tube seat post.
Same cheap front hub.

And despite that they're great bikes! 🙂 Type brompton into Ali and there are a host of parts from haddle bars of different heights to racks to wheels that clearly have a big enough market to provide jobs in China. It would be nice if Brompton offered some of the options themselves.

In the days of computer assisted design and manufacturing I sure they could do better. I'm hoping that the factory investment will give them the tools to advance.

Exciting news; this is just down the road from me. Hoping for some bargains from the factory shop 😂 If they fully pull off these plans it'll make an awesome local cycling hub/nature reserve/attraction not to mention the thousands of jobs! So fingers crossed 🤞

Ashford is actually pretty great for urban cycleways, especially compared to the rest of the SE which is generally woeful. They had the advantage of being a fairly small town, with huge potential for growth (which has happened really rapidly over the last few years!) but the town planners were very forward-thinking & chucked in loads of fairly decent traffic-free cycle routes criss-crossing most areas of the town.

Just wish Eurostar (not that they're stopping at Ashford at the moment due to Covid) would sort their shit out and let you just roll a bike on and travel to the continent rather than the complete ball-ache you have to go through at the moment! Although, a problem easily solved with a Brompton I guess 🤔

"They are not borrowing, and the West London site they leave is worth a mint."

Their Greenford site is owned / leased to them by Segro - the current lease commenced last year.

And they must be borrowing - for the simple reason that they don't have £100m in free cash sitting on their balance sheet. Unless someone is building / financing the factory and leasing it to them per the current arrangement.

Unless the drive towards active transport (bikes/walking etc.) takes off, building a factory on a flood plain may not work out well.

I wish them good luck, though.

Some of that hundred mill might be development grants and so on; it'll probably bring a fair bit of employment with it.

Unless the drive towards active transport (bikes/walking etc.) takes off, building a factory on a flood plain may not work out well.

Excellent point! If nothing else, a fantastic vote of faith in the benefits of their own product though 😉

Blimey, good news.

They’ll be financing it from the sales of the £3700+ titanium Brompton range. Which they’ve sold out. All gone. (Guess who’s tax free bike scheme starts next month).

Ashford is actually pretty great for urban cycleways, especially compared to the rest of the SE which is generally woeful. They had the advantage of being a fairly small town, with huge potential for growth (which has happened really rapidly over the last few years!) but the town planners were very forward-thinking & chucked in loads of fairly decent traffic-free cycle routes criss-crossing most areas of the town.

It’s still an absolute hole of a place, my heart still sinks every time I pass through when visiting ‘home’ I had the misfortune to spend most of my youth there and don’t think i will ever fully recover.
The locals will hate it ‘cos it cyclists innit’ and bemoan any cycling infrastructure as it stops them ragging their Escorts/BMW’s etc round the ring road. (Which is incidentally a big factor in the towns malaise as it was built too tightly round the town which resulted in poor development inside it and the big players (john Lewis etc) would not invest and go elsewhere).
Just another faded market/railway town,
I’m sure Betjemen could have substituted Slough for Ashford in his words:

“come friendly bombs rain on Slough! It isn’t fit for humans now”

building a factory on a flood plain may not work out well.

It looks, on the video, as if they've thought about that. The factory appears to be several metres above ground, on piles, and accessed on elevated paths.

Just another faded market/railway town

I was looking at a Brompton on a train a few years back, the owner saw me looking and we had a nice little chat, judging by the cheap n nasty parts from a different era I thought it was an old one that he'd kept in good nick but it was relatively new. I'm still baffled by the price of them.

The price is a bit bonkers, but the fact is that many of their target market can well afford it, and they STILL don't seem to have any decent competition. Sure there are plenty of other folders around, but Bromptons actually work well, fold up small, and last for years. The cheap parts can actually end up seeming like a benefit, because many commuters will be fine with replacing a cheap plastic bit once in a while, given how much money they're saving by not having to drive or use public transport.

Their value isn't often measured against an equivalently priced 'real' bike so much as against a London commuter's alternative options.

They are over-priced in some respects, but I do love them... If I won squillions of quids somehow then I wouldn't buy an Aston Martin, but I would spend four grand on a titanium Brompton!

Good luck to them. They solve a problem well. Really enjoy riding mine despite having quite a few other bikes. Only thing that bothered me was the gears. Didn’t like the six speed as changing each shifter alternately was messy. Tried three speed but still required maintenance and was heavy. In the end I went for singlespeed. It’s great. Keeps me fit. Wouldn’t go back to gears. Hated the plastic derailleur thing.

I've had one, ridden Dunwich Dynamo on it. What I'd like is a 20" wheel titanium one with the same fold. I have two other folders that ride better and one is lighter. But the luggage system is great - which is why you can fit it to Dahon's and my Tactic.

Will miss their Brentford factory, it's close to work.

I have one, an S2L, have even ridden through Ashford on it 🙂
It’s definitely paid for itself against tube fares and was really handy over lockdown taking food shopping to my partners.
The handling is interesting though especially without a bag on the front.
Had a few wobbly tankslapper moments on it where the weight of the bag wants to go straight on and the rest of the bike does something else.

The site for the factory isn’t used for anything else just a few ponies kept there and bordered by a dual carriageway so a good way of having something there but still retaining a flood plain for when the Stour gets flooded.

I’m still baffled by the price of them.

It's cos they are made in Britain from custom parts. That's why they're expensive. You've got used to cheap but well made stuff from giant factories in the Far East and the R&D that massive companies can put in to parts that will sell by millions and millions.

Well done Andy and co.

I met him on a Naim Audio ride around the New Forrest everyone on Bromptons. Then a party at Julian Vereker's place after. Julian was the first investor I think. Nice pair of blokes.

The price is a bit bonkers, but the fact is that many of their target market can well afford it, and they STILL don’t seem to have any decent competition.

The Bromptons we replaced have been the cheapest bikes I've ever owned on an annual basis. At 10 years old, with an honest ad describing exactly what was likely to need replacing, they still sold for silly money. They're the VW Californias of the bike world

I can't help thinking it would be a lot cheaper if they didn't build it in a marsh!