Bully Boy bollards

David, left, and Charles Broadhurst of Bully Boy will install their products at Auckland's RWC 'party central'. Photo / Doug Sherring

The fear of a home invasion inspired a family to start a business that led to a prestigious Rugby World Cup contract.

Charles Broadhurst came up with the idea for Bully Boy road bollards eight years ago, when he came home to his Paremoremo lifestyle block to learn a car had driven up the 200m-long driveway. It had left when it became clear people were around.

Broadhurst decided that rather than installing an alarm it would be more proactive to stop people coming on to the property with a vehicle.

He concluded that a bollard - a short post stuck in the ground which can be raised or lowered to stop traffic - was what was needed, but an overseas quote of $100,000 for three put him off.

"I thought, 'Why are we always importing stuff'?"

He mortgaged his house and spent $400,000 over two years designing his own bollard. The aim was to improve on overseas-made bollards, which had a reputation for filling up with water, leaking oil or becoming stuck.

With his son, David, he came up with a plan for a cost-effective alternative.

David, 29, customised the electrical side of things and designed the computer software, while his mother, Frances, did the books.

Broadhurst said Frances named the company "Bully Boy" because bollards were like bullies. "You don't mess around with a bully."

The result is a product which is sealed from the elements and controlled by compressed air instead of hydraulics. Bully Boy bollards can be raised or lowered by speed-dialling a cellphone number, which recognises the caller's number from a database.

The bollards have sunlight detectors on top so their LED lights know how much light to emit - they flash red when the bollards are going up or down and green when they can be ignored. The bollards are also able to detect whether they have been hit by a car.

Almost all items required for manufacture come from New Zealand. The equipment is assembled at Broadhurst's Paremoremo property.

Once a website was set up for the business, requests poured in from golf courses, schools and councils, Broadhurst said. The bollards had proved a popular alternative to barrier arms, which were often vandalised.

The company has been working with business growth centre the Icehouse to focus on exporting and look for investors.

Getting involved with the Australian Singapore Trade Alliance (Astra), a body of six Australian security companies, has seen Bully Boy put in a tender for bollards at a military compound in Singapore.

So far the company has carried out installations on Wellington's waterfront, at Massey University, Baradene College and in front of Pumpkin Patch Clothing's head office.

The company has just landed a project to install 11 bollards at the RWC "party central" on Auckland's waterfront.

Watching the business grow had been a "long hard road", said Broadhurst.