Hi, I’m Alex - and I built this because I was fed up too.

Before I ever picked up a pipe wrench, I spent the best part of a decade working in technology for one of the UK’s largest food retailers. I was part of the team building the systems that ran their stores - shelf-edge cameras, electronic price labelling, the kind of infrastructure that millions of people interact with every day without ever knowing it. I was good at it. I enjoyed the problem-solving. But something kept nagging at me.

I wanted to work with my hands. I wanted to see a job finished at the end of the day, walk away from it, and know I’d left someone’s home in a better state than I found it. Technology is endlessly abstract - a pipeline, a deployment, a system update. Plumbing is real. Heating is real. When someone’s boiler gives up in January, what they need is someone who shows up, fixes it properly, and doesn’t rip them off.

“I didn’t leave tech because I failed at it. I left because I found something I wanted to do more - something where I could look a customer in the eye and know I’d genuinely helped them.”

So I retrained. Properly. Got my qualifications, earned my Gas Safe registration, put in the hours, and built Coast & Country from the ground up here in west Norfolk - the place I’m proud to call home.

When I’m not on the tools, I’m at home with my wife and our two young children. Being a parent changes how you think about work. You become fiercely protective of people’s time, their money, and their peace of mind - because you know exactly how precious all three are.