Auto design, manufacturing: Team Nayyer–the dream of a 7-year-old boy

Company working on three-wheel car, sidecars and pickups

KARACHI:

Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress and working together is success, says Razi Nayyer, Chief Executive Officer of Team Nayyer, an automotive styling and design as well as small scale manufacturing company, while recalling some words of his inspiration, Henry Ford.

Living in the dream of producing a Pakistan-made three-wheel car since 1992, Nayyer is working hard to launch the project, which brought him to Karachi from his birthplace Bahawalpur.

“I only had Rs500 in my pocket when I stepped onto the Cantt station Karachi in October 1996, with the dream of bringing XT-01 three-wheel car to the market,” he says.

His father, Nayyer Ahmed, was the real inspiration for him. “My father was a car dealer which is why I and my elder brother were brought up in cars,” he says.

Razi Nayyer and Najeeb Nayyer, the elder brother, spent most of their childhood in garages and workshops along with their father. “We used to play and enjoy the real Mercedes unlike our friends who played with toy cars,” recalls Razi Nayyer, whose father had an off-white Mercedes of the 1960s.

He started working on the three-wheel car idea in Bahawalpur with his brother, who was an associate engineer in automobile technology from the Bahawalpur Government College of Technology.

They kept developing the idea for a year from November 1991 to October 1992, but it was not easy to press on with the plan as resources were no too many in the city. They thought they needed the support of the largest revenue-generating city of the country, Karachi

Razi Nayyer shifted to Karachi where his brother had been living since 1994 and rented out a small space to live. “The main concern was always to find a workable financing proposal,” he says.

The car launch plan was changed overnight when Toyota Motor announced international merger with Daihatsu. “We had to wait for a good time and opportunity to get a better response. That was not just our day.”

TCS Chairman Khalid Awan, who was the boss of elder Nayyer, became a ray of hope for the two brothers in 2000, when he gave them the contract to design and deliver red-coloured fibre glass loadmaster boxes for the courier service.

That was the day when the company named Team Nayyer was established in the drawing room of a small PECHS apartment on October 9, 2000.

“We replaced the old metal boxes with fibre glass courier boxes, which eventually worked to our company’s advantage and today we have customers from all leading companies including courier, lubricant, telecommunication and many more businesses,” he says.

In the beginning, Razi Nayyer went from one company to another with demonstration vans to attract customers towards his product. “A person may not take a look at brochures or an email, but will surely see a product that is ready for him,” he says, explaining his marketing strategy.

Making life easier

He also has high hopes for the upcoming sidecars and pickups. “The latter can be used as a pickup vehicle, delivery van, trash carrier and even a newspaper vendor can use it with his motorcycle. “The sidecar can be separately bought to attach to any motorcycle within seconds.”

Team Nayyer tries to provide the best to the people and make life easier for the middle class. “The sidecar will help the middle class which cannot afford to buy a car,” he says citing pictures of motorcyclists he took during a survey.

The company also plans to come up with a cheaper car, which will cost less than Rs300,000 for the basic model. “There is a wide gap between the price of a motorcycle and a small car, we want to give a good choice in that bracket.”

The company workshop, located in the Korangi industrial area, was overcrowded with cars where workers were busy welding, painting and joining parts to produce a vehicle.

“This is my dream which will soon be a reality,” said Nayyer, pointing to a metallic silver three-wheel car named Recreating Future.

“These all are my passion and love,” he says walking around the remodelled Willys Jeeps, off-white Amphicar and the famous Bella’s truck. “Many vintage cars are here for reconditioning and repair.”

Sharing the turning point of his life, Nayyer says, “My father gifted me a book on my seventh birthday on the biography of Henry Ford, which inspired me and motivated me how one could pursue his dreams.”

Henry Ford would never have been the founder of Ford Motor had he not believed himself and chased his dream because his father was a farmer and never thought of wheels moving without buffaloes.

THE WRITER IS A STAFF CORRESPONDENT

Published in The Express Tribune, May 4^th,  2015.

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