Outdoor gear shop to open in prominent Athlone building
The former office of the Westmeath Independent in Athlone is currently being transformed into an outdoor gear store which is expected to create up to ten jobs when it opens this autumn.
Booley has one other branch on Eglinton Street in Galway, which it describes as "the west of Ireland's biggest outdoor shop."
In Athlone, it's planning to trade on both floors of the premises at 11 Sean Costello Street, where adaptation works are currently being carried out.
James Mannion, Booley's proprietor, said its Galway branch employs around 20 full-time and part-time staff and he was hopeful there would be approximately ten people working in the Athlone store.
Mr Mannion's wife, Sinead Corrigan, is a teacher in Athlone Community College. He said the idea of opening a store in the Midlands originated when he and a group friends kayaked the full length of the Shannon for charity in 2018.
"When I was on that kayaking trip I was really impressed with Athlone, so I've been looking at this since before Covid," he said.
"I know that Athlone is a great town for shopping and you have plenty of tourist traffic there too with the Shannon.
"The products that we'd be selling, the likes of Patagonia, Columbia, Helly Hansen and Tentree, would be outdoor brands with a focus on sustainability and style.
"At the moment there's not a huge amount of competition in Athlone for the sort of stuff that we're doing, and we would have watersports and running-specific products as well."
The Booley store in Galway previously traded under another name for many years. James explained that the name of the business was "inspired by booley huts, or booley houses, that they used to have out in Connemara when they'd be bringing sheep and cattle up to the highlands during the summer.
"I wanted a name that had a connection to Ireland and was tuned into that outdoor gear end of things," he said.
He said the aim of the store was to sell high-quality outdoor clothing and equipment that had been made with sustainability in mind.
"All of the companies that we take on now would have an environmental focus so for example one of the brands we're selling is Tentree, and for every piece of clothing that you sell they plant ten trees somewhere in the world," he explained.
"Obviously the clothing industry isn't great from an environmental point of view, so we try to deal with brands that have an environmental or ethical story to tell. That's the direction that we're moving in."
He said a lot of people had gotten more involved in outdoor pursuits during the pandemic and some of his wife's colleagues from the Community College "would have been on to me looking for tents, outdoor gear, wetsuits and things like that, which are not really serviced all that well in Athlone."
Mr Mannion applied to Westmeath County Council in March 2020 for permission to change the use of 11 Sean Costello Street from office to retail which was approved in July of that year.
The Westmeath Independent had been based in the building for nearly 30 years, before moving to Unit 1, Inish Carraig Business Centre, Golden Island, in April 2019.