Kebab king turned ethanol emperor

A lifelong sports car enthusiast, Wyndham Beere always gets a kick out of driving his Ferrari. But the super car is not just Beere’s pride and joy - it is a demonstration of his latest business venture. Beere, the former joint owner of the Abrakebabra chain, is fired with enthusiasm about the potential of ethanol as a motor fuel, and has converted the high-performance Ferrari 355 to run on the renewable and environmentally friendly liquid.

Ethanol is a relatively new concept as a mass-market motor fuel, but Beere is keen to get in at the early stage of the market. Spotting an opportunity early on has already paid dividends for the entrepreneur under whom - with his brother Graeme - Abrakebabra grew from modest beginnings to a fast food empire with 55 franchised outlets.

Beere sold his 50 per cent share of the business to music promoter Denis Desmond in 2001, and has since focused on other interests. With his latest venture, he is betting that ethanol will be big business in Ireland, helping to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and also offering potential for much of our fuel to be produced domestically.

Beere’s inspiration came from an article in National Geographic magazine in October 2007 which outlined ethanol’s potential as a replacement for fossil fuels. Already concerned about the impact of global warming on the environment, he began to do his homework.

Converting cars to run on ethanol is straightforward, but finding the fuel to top up your tank can be a different matter. Eventually, Beere discovered an American firm that makes kits to convert cars to run on a combination of petrol and ethanol. ‘‘The latest kits now can detect how much petrol and ethanol is in the tank, so you don’t have to have all petrol or all ethanol,” he said.

Last week, Beere won the licence to distribute the kits in Ireland. His next step is to build up a chain of partners who can install the kits, and he will mainly focus on garages to build up the business. The installation process was relatively straightforward, he said.

‘‘You can even fit it yourself. It goes into the fuel injectors and it only takes three minutes. I can sell it and have it fitted for €300. It will also work on boats and motorbikes. Virtually anything with a petrol engine can be converted,” he said.

This sounds like a goer for geoff with his Avgas powered Astro