LONDON VAUXHALL DEALERS

Jon Penn, 32; Creative Design Products

Jon is the director and co-founder of Spinning Hat, a London-based company that designs gifts and toys, and of recently launched Goodfibres, a company that prints T-shirts with designs chosen by members of its online community. His first success came after he designed the Bottle Spy, a bottle opener with an electronic dial that logs the number of bottles it has opened. It won the eco-friendly Gift of the Year award in 2008 and Jon has been designing products ever since. Spinning Hat's products have been made available in over 30 countries; major stockists include Next, John Lewis and Paul Smith. Penn now has offices in Hong Kong and the US, as well as a main base at the Silicon Roundabout at Old Street. He attributes part of his companies’ success to their London base: “It’s certainly good for creativity; it’s very much the place to be for creative minds. It’s a buzzing place at the moment.” Global sales for Spinning Hat are this year forecast at over £3.5 million.

Preston Benson, 31; Real Estate

A business studies graduate of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, American Preston Benson quit his unfulfilling job at a Chicago accountancy firm to move to London and pursue a career in real estate. Without any contacts, he began working directly with individual families and concentrated on negotiating high-end property deals. He ultimately developed Go Native, a company that provides temporary housing solutions to businesses operating internationally; it turns over more than £29m annually. Preston is now commercial director of Bursha Holdings, a property investment company with a portfolio estimated at around £60m. Preston’s entrepreneurial drive began at the age of six. His parents were strict with pocket money and so he set up his first business “literally the cliché of selling lemonade on the street in America”. He links his success as an adult to his childhood desire to earn enough money for “that WWF action figure”.

Yuvraj Jatania, 25, and Virraj Jatania, 23; Discount and Cashback Card Business

Virraj Jatania, left, and Yuvraj Jatania.

Brothers Yuvraj and Virraj Jatania are co-founders and managing directors of Pockit, the first prepaid card provider, which enables users to make savings on household essentials in high-street stores by providing discount codes and cashback on purchases. Virraj began the business directly after leaving university and his elder brother left Ernst & Young to join him. Together, they took six months to put together a business plan and Pockit launched officially in November 2011. They currently have approximately 2,000 cardholders and expect to have around 40,000 members by the end of the year. They have already secured discount deals from companies such as Aviva, TalkTalk and M&S. The recession has proved a blessing of sorts for the brothers. It has meant that consumers are looking for new ways to save money and the company is securing large numbers of new members every day, Virraj is optimistic about Pockit’s future: “it’s very exciting times.”

Smruti Sriram, 25, Charity Student Award Scheme

Smruti founded the Wings of Hope achievement award in 2004 when she was 18 and on a gap year. The award scheme assists school students in setting up businesses that make contributions to good causes; it earns proceeds from these businesses and corporate sponsors. Smruti pitched the idea to countless head teachers and the project was accepted by 25 schools. It is now active in 400 schools and 20,000 students have participated in the programme over the course of five years. Current corporate sponsors include PWC, and Wings of Hope workshops have been led by individuals such as the CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi. Students are allowed free rein in the types of endeavours they undertake and the structure of the scheme has been redeveloped to take the participants’ ages and interests into account: “When we used to get dropouts of different schools participating in the scheme, we had to really analyse, because students can be quite fickle, and can’t be bothered if they don’t see quick wins”.

Alexander Amosu, 36; Luxury Products

Alexander is the founder of Amosu Luxury Ltd, a company that sells high-end bespoke exclusive products for “the elite”. It is most famous for making the world’s most expensive suit at £70,000 and a diamond-encrusted mobile phone costing £125,000. He has also recently ventured into Africa with a company called Kamson Luxury Group, which is introducing established brands into the African market. It is currently involved in the Nigerian launch of OK! magazine. Alexander moved with his family to the UK from Nigeria when he was three years old and grew up on a council estate in Kilburn. Aged 18, he set up a cleaning company for pregnant women. It generated revenues of £3,500 a month and provided him with capital for his next enterprise, R&B Ringtones. He founded the company after he learned how to compose ringtones on his mobile phone at the age of 21. Selling ringtones that resembled popular songs, the company earned £6.6m over four years and was sold for £9m in 2004. Alexander was a millionaire by the time he was 25.

In conversation: read about the group's thoughts on why London is an exciting place to do business and what makes a successful entrepreneur here.

YOU’VE got to love this car for its name alone: Maloo. Or to give it its full name, the Vauxhall VXR Maloo.

The Maloo is what Australians call a ute or utility vehicle, and it is the most splendidly over-the-top vehicle that I’ve driven for years.

In Oz it’s badged as a Holden but Vauxhall, in a glorious burst of humour, has decided to import the vehicle into the UK and sell it through half a dozen specialist dealers.

Under the bonnet of the Maloo sits the same 6.2-litre V8 motor that you’ll find under the bonnet of a Corvette, Camaro and Vauxhall’s own VXR8 saloon (which is also a Holden).

The motor kicks out 425bhp which is enough to propel your garden clippings to the local recycling centre at 155mph.

Or accelerate them from rest to 60mph in 5.3sec.

The cabin is just like a car’s or, to be more accurate, like the VXR8’s.

Leather bucket seats, lots of comfort and plenty of equipment.

In the 1960s Chevrolet in America made a half pick-up half car called the El Camino and Ford made a rival called the Ranchero.

Both, like the Maloo, came with seriously powerful V8 engines.

You don’t use a £51,500 pick-up truck for hauling building materials.

Besides, with fuel consumption ranging from single figures to high twenties at best, you’ll soon bankrupt your business using a Maloo for everyday work.

It’s for posing or taking a few surfboards down to the beach (it doesn’t matter if you don’t surf, of course).

The Maloo could do with some slightly louder exhausts, which I’m sure would be possible to add later.

With the standard exhaust the V8 sounds a bit neutered, with more open, fatter pipes the Maloo would make a proper roar.

The Maloo feels remarkably civilised, the six-speed gearbox needs a positive shove of the hand and the clutch a strong left leg but it all works nice and smoothly.

The steering is remarkably accurate and the handling not at all like a pick-up.

You could take a Maloo on a track day and have a lot of fun with it.

You can fit 1,208 litres of stuff into the load bay at the back of the Maloo which isn’t an awful lot for a pick-up truck.

The bay is covered by a gigantic lid that also serves a purpose as a mobile gym because it weighs a ton.

Presumably you can remove it if you want to carry a jet ski or something equally suitable for the Maloo image.

I can’t imagine that Vauxhall will sell many Maloos here.

But I’m glad that in among the electric cars and hybrids being fired at us there’s still a daft, pointless and truly outrageous motor that comes along once in a while.