Allan and Karen Watson moved from the North East of England to Lanzarote in April 2004 with their three children Paul (22 at the time), Melissa (20) and James (15). Allan laughs when we ask him why they decided on Lanzarote, he says “it was to get away from 40% tax” and Paul chips in “and my car getting stolen again!”
The family first moved up to Punta Mujeres in the North of Lanzarote, then Nazaret which was a bit more central for them. Next were a couple of different places in the resort of Costa Teguise, then back up the hill to Nazaret, but now their days of moving are hopefully over as they’ve bought their first house on the island in Costa Teguise. Allan explained that Karen doesn’t drive, so whilst they liked living out of the resorts, the transport was always an issue.
Allan’s idea when he moved to the island was to find a job where he could work 35 hours a week, earning €20 per hour which would be perfect to support the family and keep him busy. In actual fact he works closer to 90 hours a week and laughs when he says he gets paid for about 30% of that time, but that is the kind of person that he is and he’s sure that all of his customers appreciate him!
Allan set up in business with his son Paul, they have the company AireFresco which they started back in 2004. In order to get themselves known and find work, they would put on overalls with their logo on and walk into bars in the late afternoon (supposedly after a hard days work) and order a well earned beer whilst chatting with the staff. This concept worked and together with some local advertising and they found the phone started to ring. AireFresco is an air conditioning and refrigeration company with 30 years of experience in the UK and Lanzarote. Allan is also one of those brilliant engineers who can fix anything! It wasn’t surprising really that they’ve made a such a success of the business, and have recently expanded with Airelectro for domestic and commercial electrical work. The company’s ethos has always been about using quality products at a competitive price. Paul was at great pains to point out that cheap air conditioners can cost three or four times as much to run as good ones – they tend to be a false economy.
Karen has a full time job of looking after the family, and their two adopted dogs Shakira and Bailey. James attended the British School of Lanzarote in Tahiche for his final year and Melissa is teaching infant children English as a foreign language at the ELC in Arrecife. It was lovely to hear that all of Allan and Karen’s children have settled in Lanzarote, both the mother in law and Melissa (and fiancé Paul) live in their own properties in Costa Teguise, Paul is just up the hill but close by and James is still at home.
We asked Allan about their future plans? He can’t see himself retiring but he would like to slow down a bit and maybe have some time for his hobby of building and flying remote control planes, Paul wants to explore more options of bringing affordable but good quality alternative energy products to Lanzarote, Melissa is planning her wedding in 2010 and James is completing an apprenticeship with Paul.
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