Most Craft CMS enquiries from Northampton involve an install in one of two states: stable but untouched for years, or broken outright with the original developer long gone.
Karl's the only one who ever touches it. He's worked in Craft CMS and ExpressionEngine exclusively since starting Expression 37 in 2007. You're speaking to him, not a team.
The install gets checked properly before anything's recommended. That's usually a fix, a version upgrade, or an ongoing retainer.
Two very different Northampton businesses, one common problem
The town's shoemaking history goes back centuries, and while the industry's a fraction of what it was, a handful of genuine heritage manufacturers still trade internationally alongside a much bigger modern logistics sector sitting right on the M1. Craft turns up in both worlds, an older manufacturer whose site nobody's touched in years, or a logistics firm whose install simply outgrew whoever built it originally.
Expression 37 supports Northampton businesses in either position: an upgrade with a proper compatibility audit, a full takeover from an unreachable previous developer, or ongoing support for anyone who wants a specialist keeping watch. Karl starts with the actual code every time, not a summary of what's supposedly wrong.
Common questions Northampton clients ask:
We sell internationally, does that change what the site needs to do?
It changes where the attention goes. Content aimed at an international trade audience needs to be structured clearly and stay accurate, since a mistake there travels further and costs more than it would on a purely domestic site.
Do you actually need to be local to Northampton?
Not for any part of it. Code review, deployment, testing, all handled remotely without issue. If meeting in person is ever genuinely useful, Northampton's easy enough to reach.
The previous developer's essentially vanished, is that a problem?
Not really, it's a regular starting point. The first job is separating what's genuinely custom from a modified plugin, and that only comes from properly reading the code.
Should an old Craft version worry us specifically?
Usually less than people fear. The core tends to keep working fine. What actually causes trouble is whatever's been layered on top, unmaintained plugins and Composer dependencies nobody's touched.
What does ongoing support add that a one-off job doesn't?
Someone watching the site between problems instead of only after one shows up, priority when something does break, and continuity, one developer who already knows your setup properly.
What's this likely to cost us?
Depends on the actual work involved. A single project is a fixed price. Ongoing support runs monthly. Either way, the number's agreed before anything starts.
Where this tends to matter:
A heritage manufacturer whose product range needs presenting properly to an international trade audience, not just domestic retail. A logistics or warehousing firm whose site connects into scheduling or stock systems set up years back and never documented. An install left behind by a developer who's stopped taking on Craft work. A Stripe or Salesforce connection that's stopped working correctly is often what finally prompts someone to get in touch, alongside the underlying task of checking every plugin individually on a site several major versions old.
Ready to get started?
If your website is business-critical and needs a specialist who will take proper long-term ownership of it, get in touch. Karl will respond personally and give you an honest view of how we can help.
