Velvet is a bus company located in Eastleigh, owned by Phil Stockley, the former manager of Solent Blue Line. The company was set up on 3 November 2007, and its first operational contract was started in January 2008, running a temporary shuttle for Tesco staff. On 25 February 2008, Velvet took over the running of Red Rocket A in Eastleigh, which was being given up by the previous operator Solent Blue Line (under the Red Rocket brand) as part of their network restructuring. Since then, Velvet has gained a number of contracts to run other routes.