One of the busiest branches in the Brooks Group is located in Tullamore, Co. Offaly. Originally O’Brien Mollen Ltd, it has been part of the Brooks family for over 30 years and continues to go from strength to strength.
Brooks Timber and Building Supplies Ltd is among the largest timber and building suppliers in the Republic of Ireland. It has been an institution in the Irish construction industry since Thomas Brooks founded the company in 1823. Brooks has grown by developing a product offering in harmony with customer needs and by acquiring local businesses that share this customer-based approach.
Today, Brooks has eight outlets nationwide. Its headquarters has been located in Bluebell on the Naas Road since 1972. The other branches can be found in Sandyford, Glasnevin, Cork, Galway, Sligo and Tullamore, while DPV (Dublin Plywood & Veneer) in Glasnevin also comes under the Brooks umbrella.
Brooks has been trading in Tullamore since January 1987 when it bought out O’Brien Mollen Ltd, a company which has been set up 15 years earlier by brothers Tom and Pat O’Brien and Pat Mollen. The business traded as Brooks, O’Brien Mollen Ltd until 1999 when Ben Paisley and Matthew Keating – who both hail from the nearby village of Daingean – became branch managers.
Nearly 20 years on, the two continue to run Brooks Tullamore which employs 11 staff and caters for a large customer-base in the midlands region. The branch provides timber products and building materials to many retailers as well as house builders and contractors, joinery and furniture manufacturers, other builder merchants, sub-contractors, house factories and end-users (DIY). Opening hours are from 8am to 5.30pm Monday-Friday and from 9am to 1pm on Saturdays, while a direct-to-site delivery service is also available.
“Our customers come from all over the midlands,” Ben explains.
“Our location in the heart of Ireland and just off the N52 Tullamore Bypass makes us easy to access. Our premises are located on a 1.5-acre site on Church Road. We pride ourselves on being a one-stop shop for all your timber products and building materials needs. We stock the full range of hardwood and sheet material and have the biggest selection of building materials in the midlands. It’s a very competitive market and you won’t survive if you’re not able to give your customers what they want.”
Brooks’ product offering consists of six main product groups which are as follows:
Timber and Wood product – Constructional Timber, Machined Timber, Redwood, Sheet Material and Hardwoods. Where applicable, all timber products are produced to current EU construction directive.
Heavy Building Material – From the ground up, Brooks offer high-quality building materials from Irish manufactures such as Gypsum, Moy Isover, Wavin, Irish Cement and Tegral to complete your building product.
Ironmongery and Shop Products – From nails to door handles, Brooks offers a wide range of building consumables which allow the building professionals or DIT enthusiast those small bits that make all jobs a lot easier.
Flooring – Brooks are a leading supplier of Europe’s number one flooring manufacturer, Junckers. They also supply hardwood flooring, laminates and accessories to help you to complete the finished look in all your projects.
Plumbing and Heating – Brooks carry a large range of heating and plumbing materials and offer expert advice to help you in all your heating projects.
Landscaping – Building on their expertise in both timber and building materials, Brooks provide a large range of decking materials and hard landscaping products.
“Our product range includes building materials, timber, sheet material, doors and flooring, landscaping, heating and plumbing, bathrooms, hardware, building accessories, fixing, decorating and tools,” Ben says.
“As well as offering a wide range of quality products to both the building profession and those doing DIY jobs at home, we offer expert advice. Our staff are professional, knowledgeable and experienced. They enjoy a great rapport with customers and are our biggest asset in my opinion.”
Brooks’ online store is growing all the time with free shipping available on online orders of over €300 to anywhere in the Republic of Ireland. “We’re doing a lot of business online nowadays. It has really taken off in the last few years.”
Ben is happy to report that business is thriving again after the difficult years of the recession.
“The construction sector is coming back strong which is great to see. We’re back up to a comfortable level of business. It was tough going there for five or six years when there was very little happening. Had our loyal customers not stuck with us and we not tightened our belt, we mightn’t be here now. But we rode out the storm and are looking to the future with renewed optimism.”
Brooks’ company values are honesty, ambition, courage and pride. Ben would like to take this opportunity to thank customers of the Tullamore branch for their continued support.
Brooks Tullamore
Church Road,
Cloncollig,
Tullamore,
Co. Offaly.
Telephone: 057 9321533
Web: www.brooksgroup.ie
Taken from Building Ireland Magazine, August 2018, Vol 4 No 7
