The company, which has around 50 full-time employees, needed additional space to meet an order for seven pothole patching machines from South Africa and two from the Gulf.

Velocity managing director Richard Jackson said: “Demand has been growing for our vehicles, to such an extent that it was close to outstripping our capacity to produce them.

“Pearson Engineering’s investment has opened up a vast array of resources, not just in manufacturing but in research and development, together with such areas of expertise as the design and software for programmable logic controllers (PLCs). Pearson will help us take velocity patching technology to a new level.

“We want to employ new PLCs to improve our road patching process and vehicles, to make everything more effective and efficient, to cut emissions, effect economies of fuel and reduce our carbon footprint.”

Velocity manufactures the machines for export and in the UK has a fleet of 15, which it hires out to local authorities, complete with crews to operate them.

The high-speed technique makes the equipment capable of patching up to 150 potholes a day.

Although bad winters like 2009 and 2010/11 are good for business, Keith Flinn says the Velocity team isn’t praying for snow.

“A lot of our work is preservation work. As well as repairing the potholes, we also do the pre-surface dressing patching,” he said.