In a purpose-built factory in Enfield's Brimsdown - the second-biggest industrial estate in London - BIZ Karts are building their vehicles from scratch. From the chassis to the graphics, they are custom-built to order by the company's twenty welders, fabricators and assembly staff. The family-run set-up started in Shoreditch in 1816 as a builder's merchant called Smith & Sons. In the early 1900s a metalwork division was added to supply products such as zinc guttering. During the Second World War, the firm made aircraft drop tanks (auxillary fuel tanks carried on the outside of planes). After the war, it became BIZ (standing for Builders Iron & Zinc Work) and now comprises two companies: thirty-strong BIZ Engineering and forty-strong BIZ Karts. BIZ Karts was founded in 1994 when Mike Smith, MD of BIZ Group met some leading figures in the UK karting industry and realised go-karts could be the niche product they were looking to manufacturer and sell. Soe BIZ Karts staff have been with the company since the beginning, but sales are outgowing what they can produce in-house so the company are considering an apprenticeship programme. This growth is in part due to exports. A sales office opened in Florida in 2017 and now roughly 40% of all karts are exported to the Americas. There is an increasing appetite for BIZ's electric kart. It attracts a different customer base and with karting tracks opening in defunct shopping centres, more families are getting involved.