investment

Motorcycle Live, NEC Birmingham. Trials legend, Dougie Lampkin was present on the CCM stand greeting customers old and new, signing autographs, posing for selfies and even selling a few bikes.

Making their inaugural trip to the show were Anil Pitalia, the head of Pitalia Capital and Paul Kirkman, the new Operations Director of the Bolton based firm.

12 times trials world champion Dougie said “Long term and loyal relationships have been core to my career and something I value greatly. Therefore, I am very pleased to announce that I will be extending my relationship with CCM Motorcycles for the foreseeable future after having had the opportunity to meet with the new owner and management when I got to learn about the next and exciting chapter for this great British brand.”

Dougie’s family have been associated with CCM for many years and CCM Sales Manager, Ben Clews, grandson of the firm’s founder Alan Clews, continues the Clews family tradition of great British bike building. He said “We are proud to welcome Dougie back for the next chapter in CCM’s history. He is a great sporting icon, a superb role model and he brings a wealth of experience to our brand.”

Dougie will be seen at a variety of events throughout 2022 and will continue to assist with the development of new models.

Photograph from L to R – Anil Pitalia, Paul Kirkman, Dougie Lampkin, Ben Clews

No comments yet

This year CCM Motorcycles (CCM) is celebrating its golden jubilee and in another milestone, the Bolton-based firm has just secured significant investment to build on the business’ past 50 years of success.

From the humble beginnings in founder Alan Clews’ garage, that same passion to succeed and innovate continues to thrive on the site of Alan’s 70’s factory site at Jubilee Works.

Over the past five decades, CCM has taken the fight to the motorcycling behemoths on the motocross, trials, flat-track and road race circuits of the world, with numerous accolades achieved throughout.

Great names to grace the saddles of competing CCMs from the motocross world include Mike Barnes, Andy Ainsworth, Bob Wright, John Banks, Vic Eastwood, Vic Allan, Donny Schmit, Greg Hanson, Dave Thorpe, Tom Church and Steven Sword, amongst many others.
From the trials world, high profile names include John Lampkin and Steve Saunders, Dakar riders –
Simon Pavey, Nick Craigie; and from the road racing world Niall McKenzie, Donnie McLeod, Chris
Walker and 1981 IOM TT winner, Steve Tonkin. From the European flat track racing scene, Marco Belli and Stephane Mezard.

Bob Wright in full flight leading a ’77 British Championship race.

All enjoyed racing success with the British Marque, some winning British, European and World
Championships on their ultra-competitive CCMs, giving the marque a fantastic 50 years racing heritage. And with legendary British stuntman, Eddie Kidd, at the controls, CCM claimed the world bus-jumping record too.

CCM has proved to be an industry leader in the motorcycle world, with the world’s first aluminium trials bike in the 1980s, the first direct link suspension, the first carbon fibre road racers, the world’s first aluminium bonded motorcycle chassis on its GP450 Adventure bike – all proven on the racetrack over the years.

Making bikes to win races gave CCM the expertise to design bikes that feel alive on the road, and this earned them a cult following with a range of dual sport, supermoto and modern retro models. The ground-breaking GP450 remains as one of the only truly capable lightweight adventure bikes and the end of engine supplies took CCM on a whole new journey with the critically acclaimed Spitfire series and the firm’s greatest retail success with a range of scramblers, flat trackers, bobbers and Carl Fogarty tribute machines.

Such pedigree has attracted a new partnership with North West based-Pitalia Capital, which will support the company on its next 50-year journey and will enable this great British brand to invest further in new product development and embrace the pent-up demand across Europe and beyond. With the company currently only offering the Spitfire range within the UK, the support of Pitalia Capital will facilitate investment in European homologation to provide access to a number of other key markets, which supports CCM’s wider global growth plan.

Designing and developing beautiful, customer focused artisan motorcycles will continue to be CCM’s
core product and business focus. This investment also represents a fantastic opportunity as the company begins the recruitment process for 14 new roles to provide the infrastructure to support the ambitious growth plans. CCM is actively looking to bolster the senior management team and recruit experienced design engineers and programme managers to support new projects, in addition to ambitious, talented people for roles in procurement and production assembly through to finishing, PDI and logistics.

Commenting on behalf of CCM, Austin Clews said: “I am so proud of my father’s achievements here at CCM. It’s been a true family affair, with three generations involved in driving the brand through its competition days towards becoming a well-known British icon in the world of bikes. We are really excited about the next stage of our journey which will see a new ambition to take CCM into international markets.”

John Davies, managing partner of Pitalia Capital, added: “CCM is a British manufacturing success story with a rich heritage and despite increased competition from overseas in recent years, the company has continued to buck the trend and bring fantastic, innovative motorbikes to market.

“CCM bikes are an incredibly emotive creation, and the passion in the products and the people of this business is something that has clearly shone throughout our discussions. Our immediate investment priority is to our current and loyal customer base. It is so important for CCM to forge and maintain personal relationships with our customers. We look forward to investing heavily in this area to their benefit.

“I’m also looking forward to working in partnership with the Clews family and our plan is to invest in all areas of the business, providing the financial and strategic springboard to bring this unique brand to the international stage. We are extremely excited about the opportunity ahead.”

For further information about the employment opportunities available, please contact [email protected]

No comments yet