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Peel Engineering appoints JELC to licence classic 60s microcar brands the P50 and Trident
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Fifty years after it was first manufactured, the world’s smallest production car is back — and not just on the road. The tiny three-wheeled Peel Engineering P50 and its bubble-top ’sister’ the Trident are being seen again — both as collectors’ cars and as an iconic, quirky and very British brand with strong licensing potential. And both cars and brand are enjoying an enthusiastic media and consumer response.
Now the company that manufactures the P50 and the Trident, Peel Engineering, has appointed JELC as its European agent to build on the vast interest that has not only brought the microcars back to the market for the first time since 1969, but turned them into a unique British brand with enormous merchandising potential. |
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To date that potential has only been addressed through a souvenir store on Peel Engineering’s own website, www.peelengineering.co.uk. However, JELC plans to take these distinctive, much-loved cars and build on the undoubted licensing potential of their image, charm and associations with groovy 1960s Britain. Supported by a comprehensive new style guide, the Peel licensing campaign will leverage the emblematic name, shape and colours of the P50 and the Trident alongside classic art from their heyday in the 1960s to create a truly unique and unmistakable brand proposition.
Numerous TV appearances — from Top Gear and the Paul O’Grady Show to Dragon’s Den — and a regular place in Ripley’s Believe it or Not museums have confirmed that the tiny cars could be a big hit as a quirky, fun and inimitably British brand. Now with a wide potential target audience of both sexes — from teenagers who have fallen in love with the offbeat charm of the cars, to older adults who adore the nostalgia trip, not to mention the kids who just love these 'their-sized’ cars — the Peel brand will be driving at full speed into the licensing arena in the coming months. Initial categories are expected to include die-cast models, gifting, household and of course apparel — but the colourful image and appealing associations of these very British manufacturing icons offer themselves to many more areas. |
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Faizal Khan, Commercial Director and Cowner of Peel Engineering says: “The reaction to the revived Peel range has so far been beyond our wildest dreams. Now it is imperative that we put the job of building the brand’s undoubted licensing potential in the hands of experts. JELC quickly proved to us that they really ‘get’ the brand and have some brilliant ideas for its development. We’re looking forward immensely to working with them.”
Janet Woodward, Director of JELC, says: “It was clear from the start that the charming, quirky, retro appeal and the unique look of the P50 and the Trident made them not just collectable but iconic, both as cars and as a new, different and appealing licensing proposition. The world’s smallest production cars are definitely going to be big retail news very soon.” |
