Mark Hayes has been living in Lanzarote for 23 years, just over half his life. Having left school and completed his 4 year apprentice training as a plumber, he left the UK to travel, first to France and then on to Portugal and once the summer season ended he found himself on a plane for Lanzarote. He said it was a very different place back in 1986, when the plane banked round before landing, he did start to wonder what he was going to find here!
Mark found work where he could in the first few years and then bought a half share of a bar in Puerto del Carmen, The Irish Viking, after 10 years of much song and cheer in the bar business he then went to work in Madrid for two years for a Lanzarote company Tila e Hijos SL. He was the sales manager on the mainland and responsible for selling huge, expensive machines that crush and sort earth and rocks. He has good memories of this experience and explained just what a shock it was arriving with what he thought was great fluent Spanish to realise that when no-one speaks any English, his Spanish wasn’t as good as it needed to be and he was in at the deep end. Mark explained that two years was enough for him of city life, he was getting fat and he wanted to move back to a better and healthier lifestyle!
When Mark returned to Lanzarote he wasn’t sure what to get involved in next, absolutely convinced Lanzarote was the place to be for himself and his now pregnant wife, he went to work as a salesman for American Mike and Jason who owned Aquadreams, a swimming pool and spa company. Mark was good at selling pools and spas but was getting frustrated at the plumbers Aquadreams employed at the time, and before long found himself offering to swap roles and become the plumber so that when the pools were sold, their customers were getting the best installations. He smiled and said the old working class adage of “learn a trade and you’ve always got something to fall back on”. Mark now owns Aquadreams, both of the original partners have left the island for different reasons, Jason was always looking for the next challenge and Mike fell in love!
Aquadreams is the one name that always springs to mind when you need a pool or spa company in Lanzarote, clients know that they have a long history and they get great service. Now that Mark is the boss, he’s even more committed to his customers and won’t hesitate to do a house call to check why a pool light isn’t working or a pool is leaking, The swimming pool and spa business, as every retail and service business is changing, and in order to remain competitive, Mark has worked to cut out the middle men so that he can offer pools, spas and chemicals direct from the manufacturer. The people, who benefit from this, are his customers, as these cost cutting measures are being passed straight on to them.
Mark is a family man, he’s married to Tanya, who also works part time in Aquadreams as well as being a full time mother, they met in Lanzarote and have been together 14 years and have three boys, Henry (7), Rory (5) and Niall (3) who all attend the local Spanish primary school in Tías. He loves the fact his children are growing up bilingual and in such a safe and healthy environment. Being a keen windsurfer, squash player and golfer Mark believes that sport is a very important part of life, it clears your mind and puts you on a positive wave length, he hopes sport will help keep the boys on the straight and narrow.
Aquadreams have 5 vans on the road, Mark drives the Toyota Hilux pick up truck, that's been there since they started the company. He proudly states “it never breaks down and has a feel of indestructibility about it, I have stuck it in 4 wheel drive pulled stranded water lorries out of fields with it.”
Mark’s future plans are to enjoy life, keep doing what he does best and keep doing it well!
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