Athlone wood floors specialist developed his craft in New York

In February 2008, Aidan Browne's wooden floors store and showroom opened its doors on the Roscommon Road in Athlone. While this is the first shop the Rosemount native has opened, he brings to it a wealth of experience in business. Indeed, he first learned the sanding and refinishing trade during a period in which he was based in the Big Apple in the 1980s. "I went to New York in the early to mid '80s and I ended up spending seven years there," he told the Westmeath Independent last week. "That was an amazing experience. You got to meet all sorts of people, and it was a good time to be based in New York. There was plenty of work going, and because we were facing hard times at home there were planeloads of lads flying over from Ireland." After his return home, Aidan set about establishing his own flooring business in the midlands. He specialised in wooden flooding, which was unusual in the Athlone area at the time. "Wooden flooring was just starting to become more common, and after my experience of installing, sanding and refinishing wooden floors in New York, I decided to specialise in it. We built up the business by supplying and fitting floors over a number of years," he said. "Wooden flooring started becoming more popular during the '90s and importers started bringing in a wider variety of materials and floor types. At the moment the variety that's on offer is wider than it has ever been." Aidan provides work to both commercial and private customers. Projects his company worked on have included providing fitted floors at Our Lady's Bower, Athlone IT, the Wineport Lodge Hotel and the Hodson Bay Hotel, as well as revamping floors in Maynooth College. At the beginning of last year, Aidan decided that the time was right to establish his store and showroom at Bogganfin on the Roscommon Road. "We had gotten to the stage where we felt we should spread our wings a bit more," he stated. "A lot of customers and people we were dealing with were saying that the existing stores didn't have the in-depth knowledge of flooring they were looking for, so with the team we had built up we thought the time was right to open the store." Aidan works with his partner, Frances - who also has an in-depth knowledge of flooring - and they employ a team of floor fitters with over twenty years' experience. He stated that the store offers a number of advantages to the customer. "We have the largest selection of flooring in the midlands, and we have built up our knowledge and experience over the years, so customers can be assured that it's not a fly-by-night operation," he said. "We supply both the flooring materials and the fitting service, so it's a one-stop shop, and we would always be here to help if any problems arose down the line. "The store is also in a convenient location, just off the Dublin-Galway bypass, and parking is available." One specialised area in which the business operates is in the sanding and refinishing of surfaces, along with restoring and adding colour to old floors. Aidan has vast experience in this field, dating from his time working in New York. The store supplies a range of laminated, solid and semi-solid flooring, and it also sells doors, skirtings, architraves, door hardware and accessories. While the opening of the store coincided with the downturn in the economy, Aidan's business has been taking strides in the right direction. "Even through these quiet times we've found that our business has been improving all the time," he said. In fact, the recession has brought some benefits for customers. A number of stores and service providers have been lowering their prices, and some homeowners have been taking advantage of this by choosing to renovate rooms or have new flooring installed at a lower rate than they would have been quoted in previous years. Aidan's business has fixed its prices to offer very good value for money in the current climate. To underline this, he pointed out that the store will be featuring a number of special offers on certain lines in the lead-up to Christmas. "Full details of our offers will be available in store," he said. The business is open six days a week and its opening hours are: Monday to Friday, from 10am to 6pm, and on Saturdays from 10am to 5pm. Aidan stated that no job is too big or small, and if you have any queries he can be reached on 090 64 90429. Further details are also available online at: www.abrownefloors.ie