Success for westmeath owned spanish company
Spanish Solutions, a member of the Comaskey group of companies, received this year’s Pride of Spain ‘Business of the Year’ award at an awards ceremony in the Teatro Municipal De Torrevieja.
A jubilant Ian Comaskey, managing director of the company, paid tribute to the staff of Spanish Solutions with his first words on local radio: “This is not about me – this is for our team, because it is they who have landed this top award. It really hasn’t sunk in yet but I am over the moon.”
Spanish Solutions is a one-stop centre in La Zenia catering for legal and accounting services for both Spanish citizens and ex-pats. The company currently employs 16 professionals, dealing with all matters of law, conveyance, taxes, traffic affairs, accounting, translations and more.
Silvia at the front desk speaks six languages. Spanish Solutions has 2,500 active clients and more than 8,000 transactions on its books. Last year, for example, €670,000 in tax refunds was reclaimed for clients from the Spanish government – much of it by way of inheritance tax.
Westmeath man Ian Comaskey went to Spain in 2001.
He spent the first year working in his parents’ business, but in that year he mastered the Spanish language and qualified as an estate agent. He set up Comaskey Properties Sales and Rentals in 2002. The property company has flourished, despite the slump, and there are currently 11 staff involved in sales and administration at their two offices in La Zenia.
“Our core business will always be selling property, but I could see that most clients needed a follow up and the Costa Blanca was desperately in need of an advice centre and where clients could find a lawyer, accountant – or something as simple as where they might tax their car,” said Ian.
“I set up Spanish Solutions in 2005 with all these services under the one roof. It lost money the first year – but it isn’t losing money any more!”
The Comaskeys have founded a number of other businesses on the Costa Blanca over the last 15 years.
Ian married Lynne Henderson, a Glasgow pharmacist in 2008 and the couple have two sons.