Where did you come from originally?
We moved to Spain from Tidworth, near Salisbury in Wiltshire where I finished my career as a Tank Commander in the British Army, having served for 22 years. We always knew we didn’t want to settle in the UK and Spain was our choice this area was championed by my wife´s parents who had already visited and made the decision to move here too. We have now been here for 11 happy years.
Tell me about your partner and family.
My wife is Sam, she was an estate agent for 15 years and retrained as a childminder after having our son Oliver. We met in Portsmouth, she was friends with my mate, that was over 20 years ago now. Oliver is my youngest son, at 18 he is in his final year of and plans to leave Spain next year to join the Royal Navy. My eldest son Reece, he is 23 and lives in Hull in the UK with his wife Chelsey and our beautiful granddaughter Poppy.
When did you start your business and why?
We started PMS, in October 2019 because we wanted to have time at home together. Up to that point, since leaving the Army I had worked away most recently in West Africa as a Security Manager for a gold mine. This work meant spending weeks and even months away from home so when my last contract expired, we decided the time was right to start something new. Sadly, there´s not much call for Tank Commanders in the mountains of Southern Spain so we decided that Home and Garden Maintenance was the way forward and invested in some industrial equipment that enables us to offer a wide range of services from pool cleaning to gardening and painting.
What is your favourite part of the work?
The work we do is physically difficult, gardening in a mountainous area was never going to be easy but, that said the work itself is very rewarding, it´s great to stand back and look at the difference our efforts have made and how happy our clients are with our work. We have also met some really lovely people who have now become friends as well as clients. We take great pride in our work and knowing that people appreciate that and come back to us time after time is a fabulous reward.
