From Southland's potholes to pages of UK Who's Who

Tag : bitumen emolsion

An ingenious method of patching roads has led to former SouthlanderRichard Jackson being inducted into Who's Who, the bible ofBritain's business elite, next month.
Parents Peter and Robin Jackson, of Otatara, will also be on handto see the elevation of Mr Jackson's company Velocity.
Mr Jackson moved from Australia to England a decade ago and beganto build up a road-repair business.
In December 2004, Mr Jackson bought out the other threeshareholders in the company, Jetpatcher UK, and soon afterrebranded it Velocity.
The rebranding included adopting a punning strap line — theHole Solution — to sum up the company's new goal of providingthe (w)hole solution to its clients' needs.
The Sunderland-based company manufactures and supplies specialistroad-repair equipment. It has sold 50 machines in the UnitedKingdom, while maintaining its fleet of 14 machines and crews tocarry out repairs from the Shetland Isles to the south of England.
The business employs 40 staff and now includes a specialistpackaged products division, a driver hire and recruitment company,and a new machine manufacturing unit for expansion into Europe.
The company's plans for expansion took another step with theappointment of a distributor for Turkey this year.
Mr Jackson has also developed a road-repair process similar to theway a dentist fills a tooth.
Air pressure is used to remove loose debris from the defect, abonding coat of bitumen emulsion is applied and then an aggregateand emulsion mix fills the hole through the same hand-held nozzle,being compacted as it is applied.
The result is a fast and cheap alternative to conventionalpatching, which has helped the business succeed and get MrJackson's name added to the list of Britain's business elite.
Mr Jackson trained with the late Jack Cockburn in Invercargillbefore helping set up Jetpatcher Australia, followed by his move tothe UK and going into business there.