It’s been another good year for John Bloor’s Bloor Holdings, thanks to the Government’s incentives for house buyers which have boosted Bloor Homes, and the continuing success of the other part of the group – Triumph Motorcycles.

Prime Minister David Cameron paid a visit to a Bloor Homes site near Manchester ahead of the Conservative Party conference in order to re-state his intention to help aspiring homeowners get on the property ladder. He met first time buyers as he announced that the Help to Buy scheme would launch earlier than expected.

This is good news for John Bloor, who is building houses at a rate of more than 2,000 a year – everything from one-bedroom apartments to seven-bedroom luxury homes.

The Derbyshire-based company passed the £700 million turnover mark in the year to June 2012 with pre-tax profits up to £40.7 million compared to £22.8 million the previous year.

Bloor Holdings, parent company of Measham-based Bloor Homes and Hinckley-based Triumph Motorcycles recorded a turnover of £726.8 million for the year, up from £655.1 million.

Triumph Motorcycles turned over £342.3 million of the group’s sales in the year to 2012, slightly down on 2011, but market share was maintained. Operating profit was down to £15.7 million from £22.3 million, partly as a result of costs incurred setting up a Brazilian manufacturing and sales operation.

The MCIA – the motorbike industry trade body confirmed that Triumph retained its dominant position as the UK’s top seller of machines over 500cc with a 19.4 per cent share of the market. Spending on research and development has increased by more than 10 per cent to £24 million.

Upgrades across the range, plus the launch of the 1215cc Trophy – Triumph’s most technically advanced motorbike to date – have helped Triumph sell nearly 50,000 machines, despite a difficult climate in the global motorcycle industry.

Triumph – 100 per cent owned by John Bloor who rescued it from oblivion – has been selling well in the UK, Italy and Germany as well as making an impression in its new and growing markets of Brazil and India. 85 per cent of its production goes for export.

The slump in house sales hit Bloor Homes hard but that’s now history as the house market recovers.

New developments have been built in Altrincham, Wednesbury, Bath and Frome. In 2012 Bloor Homes acquired an 11.2 acre site in Waterlooville near Portsmouth with planning consent for 194 new homes. Gross development value for that site is estimated at £35 million.

Bloor Homes is one of the largest privately-owned housebuilding groups in the UK.

Our estimation of the value of 70 year-old John Bloor’s revitalised Triumph Motorcycles along with the recovery of Bloor Homes propels him further up the 2014 Rich List.

Derbyshire-born John Bloor – who lives in Swadlincote – rescued the collapsed Triumph in 1983 and the brand displayed the first products from its new Hinckley factory in 1990. John Bloor – a miner’s son – has poured more than £80 million into rebuilding the 100 year-old brand. He was awarded the OBE in 1995 for services to the motorcycle industry and holds an honorary law degree from Leicester University.