Reinvigorating an Iconic Engineering-Design Brand

Reinvigorating an Iconic EngineeringDesign Brand

Faizal Khan (OE 1998) has breathed new life into the ‘world’s smallest car’ – the Peel P50 – after pitching his company’s ideas on the TV show Dragons’ Den. Andrew Beattie asked him how he became a business entrepreneur – and how as a qualified FIFA agent he has helped to revitalize the national football team of Guyana.

Engineering and physics have featured a lot in your business roles. Did your time at Eltham College inspire you in this direction?

My time at the school was enjoyable and memorable. We had teachers that challenged us to think outside the box, and the group of pupils I was close with also challenged each other all day, every day. If I am honest, when Guyana struck oil in 2015 and I was learning more about hydrocarbons, I thought to myself, ‘I really wish I had paid full attention in my Chemistry and Physics classes at Eltham College!’ A word of note to the pupils reading: pay attention in class all the time, even if the subject you are studying isn’t your favourite. You just don’t know when that information might prove useful in the future.

Design Technology was a favourite subject of mine at school. It involved making of all sorts of weird and wonderful things, understanding the strengths of materials, and how to best affix components together. These have been skills that have been useful in later life.

Tell us about the Peel P50 cars. They were manufactured in the Isle of Man many years ago, but you have revived the brand. What inspired you about them?

Since 1962 the Peel P50 has been listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s smallest car. Dare I say we were able to take the appeal of the Peel P50 to global recognition, with the car today featured in over 150 countries and counting.

Together with my business partner, Gary Hillman, I reinvigorated this classic microcar brand about 15 years ago. This involved appearing on the BBC programmes Top Gear and Dragons’ Den as well as a Cadbury’s TV commercial. The re-manufacture

of a new road-legal Peel car (for the streets of the UK, the USA, Dubai and Japan to name a few) was a huge task, with the new prototypes being made with both petrol as well as electric engines.

Today we are proud the Peel micro car brand is internationally recognised. In 2022 another licensing deal was confirmed for the Peel P50 and Peel Trident cars to be featured in Microsoft Xbox game, Forza Motorsport. The new Microsoft video artwork looks great, and we are very excited to see how the Xbox fans like the Peel cars in the new game. Who knows, a Peel P50 may yet make a special appearance at Eltham College in the not-too-distant future.

We enjoyed watching your appearance on Dragons’ Den from around ten years ago (easy to find on YouTube). What advice would you give someone wanting, as you did, to pitch an idea on the show?

I think Dragons’ Den and the USA equivalent, Shark Tank, are great shows for budding young businessmen and women. I watched a few episodes back-to-back the other week and despite Dragons’ Den now going into its 18th series, some of the ideas being pitched are brilliant.

My advice would be that when thinking of launching a new business service or product you should try and find a readymade market that has a gap, and create a product for that gap, rather than making a product that you really like and then trying to find a new market to sell it into. You also need to be confident, smile and remember people buy into people, not just the product. Your pitch must be on something you truly believe in.

What was it about your pitch that you think appealed to James Caan but not the other Dragons?

Gary and I actually had all five Dragons interested in the car, though this didn’t make the final cut. I think James saw the appeal and British quirkiness of the Peel P50 brand. He also liked the fact that we were very straight up and honest about not knowing exactly which direction to take the Peel brand.

Top Gear did a feature on the P50 cars, with Jeremy Clarkson pictured driving one around the streets of London and then around the BBC building, at one point letting John Humphrys, erstwhile presenter of Radio 4’s Today programme, have a go with it. Did you enjoy the show’s feature?

The Peel P50 Top Gear feature is arguably the most famous Peel P50 media appearance. The BBC has highlighted the Peel episode as being in the top three most watched episodes globally of all time, with over 200 million views and counting. Watching Jeremy Clarkson, a tall man at 6’5, drive the car around the streets of London made for a really enjoyable and historic show.

You are also a former FIFA licensed football agent. How did you get into this and what talent have you discovered and brought on?

I qualified in my mid-twenties as a FIFA licensed football agent after working for Maxim magazine at Dennis Publishing, Yahoo.com, E-Type Europe and Absolute Publishing. Football agency work happened almost by accident, if I am honest. I always loved football, even at Breaside Prep School, where I was before Eltham College.

I recall being at Eltham College in September 1996 when I found out my beloved Arsenal FC had just appointed a new manager from Japan, whose name was Arsène Wenger. The striking resemblance between the manager’s first name and the club’s name was very amusing to some of my classmates. Being one of only a few Arsenal fans at school (many pupils in my year and the year above were Spurs fans), I knew I was in for a long season. I never expected that by the following May I would be the one laughing, watching Arsenal lift the Premier League trophy for the →

first time, playing some scintillating football along the way.

I remember by the middle of that season my brother Afzal and I had paper rounds in the Bickley area. Each morning we would be checking all the back pages of all the customers’ newspapers to find out the scores. I offer a belated apology to anyone reading this from the Bickley area who regularly received very wet back pages of their Times, Sun or Daily Star newspapers on rainy days in 1997.

Soon I began interacting with footballers who, for the most part, were convinced I would be a better agent than their current rep. It was just around the time where the game was really moving into another dimension commercially. We did deals from the Premier League down the English football pyramid, and with Major League Soccer (MLS) in the USA as well several developmental deals in mainland Europe second divisions. A niche area we developed was to help the better young internationals from the USA and Caribbean national teams into the UK and Europe, with the older UK professionals going the other way for one last ‘hurrah’, usually with the sun on their back.

I have since moved to the other side of the fence, holding professional recruitment and scouting positions with Senior mens’ FIFA international first teams from Malta, Guyana and Montserrat.

Here are some Guyana FIFA international players to look out for in future: Stephen Duke Mckenna (Queens Park Rangers FC, Championship, UK); Omari Glasgow (Chicago Fire FC, Major League Soccer, USA); and Terell Ondaan (FC Craiova, Romanian League 1).

I am glad to say I’ve been able to help a lot of young people into professional football, as well as some older players extend their careers by sealing deals in somewhat warmer shores.

There is no football played at Eltham, besides pupils kicking around a football on the fields at lunchtime. What part did you play in sport at school?

I am proud that I came through the school ranks and played a decent level of rugby at Eltham College, captaining a number of the teams along the way. I played mostly in the front row as a hooker (my ears should look a lot worse, come to think of it), before having a neck injury and having to learn to play open side flanker, which didn’t see half as much of the action. I remember winning the Kent Cup during my time at school.

One year we went on tour to Newcastle and played Barnard Castle School. Not only did we win our rugby matches away from home, but we also went to watch Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle United train. In those days their training ground was a local park – how times have changed! Their squad included a new French winger named David Ginola, and England centre forward, ‘Sir’ Les Ferdinand.

Funnily enough the better rugby players in my year were also decent footballers, with many playing Saturday school rugby and Sunday league football. Boys such as Fethi Huseyin, Liam Mulvihill and James Mole, to name a few, were standout all-round sportsmen: if you wanted to be around them they would make you competitive. Some would race you to the tuck shop queue every day if you let them; it wasn’t until later in life that I realised just what a strong winning mentality some of them had from a really young age.

‘I am glad to say I’ve been able to help a lot of young people into professional football, as well as some older players extend their careers by sealing deals in somewhat warmer shores.’

You mention in one of your social media video clips that you have a ‘deep affinity with Guyana’ and spent a lot of time there when you were younger. It is not a country that many are familiar with, however. Could you tell us something about it – and maybe what the highlights are for visitors?

Guyana is a small country in South America, next to Venezuela and north of Brazil. It is the only English-speaking nation in South America. It’s part of the Commonwealth and was formerly known as British Guiana.

It is not a beach destination per se, but I believe if you enjoy safari or adventure holidays Guyana should be on your list of places to visit. The journey from Gatwick is terrible... you have to stop off in Barbados for a night on the beach!

Exxon Mobil recently announced they have discovered more than ten billion barrels of oil off the shores of Guyana. Every man and his dog involved in the global oil industry suddenly seems to be learning where Guyana is, including some past schoolfriends of mine who recently got in touch, as the hedge fund or merchant bank they work for are interested in Guyana.

The rainforests and waterfalls there are something special: this includes the Kaieteur Falls, which is the planet’s largest single drop waterfall.

You hosted Spotlight, a talent show on Guyanese cable TV. Could you tell us something about the show and how you got into hosting it, and maybe something about some of the acts featured?

As they say, it’s about who you know. My girlfriend at the time knew the producers. I guess I was a new kid on the block in those days, so they asked me to try out for it, which I did.

It was a good experience, and I got a lot of pats on the back from friends in the industry in London and overseas. It was really interesting to learn all the intricacies of TV production, including camera and lighting angles, scripting and of course filming for up to 14 hours a day.

The show was a ‘Guyana’s Got Talent’ with a mix of acts and performances. To this day it’s probably the most expensive TV production of its kind in the country. I hope to be involved in other ventures in the future, but not necessarily as the host as I’m no longer the new kid on the block!

You’ve also been involved with the Guyanese football team, in 2011 taking them to the final of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) World Cup qualifying round. How rewarding did you find this role?

On November 11, 2011 – 11.11.11. as it is now famously refereed too – I was lucky enough to have scouted and recruited former Premiership players Carl Cort (former Newcastle United centre forward) and Leon Cort (former Stoke and Burnley central defender) to play for Guyana, the nation of their mother’s birth.

After Trinidad has lost 2-1 away to Bermuda and Guyana drew 1-1 away to Barbados, Guyana were a point ahead and played Trinidad and Tobago at home in what was a must win game to advance as group winners (and knock everyone else out of the FIFA World Cup 2014 Qualifiers). Trinidad showed up in Guyana with an all-star cast, including a host of professional players from their 2006 World Cup campaign such as Kenwyn Jones, Stern John, Carlos Edwards and Chris Birchall. Guyana hadn’t won against Trinidad in World Cup Qualifiers since the early 1950s, I think. The score ended up with Guyana beating Trinidad 2-1, the Guyanan goals scored by Ricky Shakes and Leon Cort (both scouted by me). The 15,000 Guyanese in the stadium went berserk. I should have run for President that year!

In 2018, I left my role as Head of Recruitment with the Malta FA to return to the Guyana national team, this time to support new head coach Michael Johnson. Guyana subsequently qualified for the CONCACAF Gold Cup for the first time in the nation’s history.

You are now CEO of Guysons Oil in Guyana. What does the firm do, and what are the challenges and rewards of this role?

Guysons Engineering was established by my father in 1992 as the country’s main machine shop, offering machining and fabrication services. In 2017 we launched a new company, Guysons Oil and Gas, to support Exxon Mobil with an ISO 9001-2015 certified machine shop but with additional certified oilfield services. These included manufacture, procurement and logistics facilities, engineering project management, staffing, housing and emergency maintenance and repair support. We have recently launched a major new joint venture with a brilliant company called K+B Industries from Houma, Louisiana, so I suppose Guysons is now a group of companies.

And finally, what advice would you give to current Elthamians who would like to follow a career in business entrepreneurship, as you have?

I am flattered each time I am asked this and would happily lend some time to anyone who was seeking some advice. What I would say is try and be the hardest-working person in the room, every day. Be a good listener, listen to understand first and foremost, not to reply. Smile, be likeable and ensure you are a person of your word.

Some years ago, an important person at Exxon Mobil, Mr Henson, asked me to do two things when I told him I wanted Guysons to have a future in the oil industry. He said: ‘Faizal, be honest and say exactly what you can do, then do exactly what you say: if you do that the oil field will trust you.’ Neither I nor Guysons have forgotten that advice. ⬤