Advance Hearing

Founded in 1979, Advance Hearing Aid Centre opened on 23 Store Street in Dublin, under the directorship of James G. Sharkey. He set about expanding operations to provide the whole of Ireland with a professional standard in hearing care. In its first year alone Advance attended six new day centres in pharmacy and optical oulets throughout Ireland, and in 1981 acquired Foreman Hearing Aids on Dame Street, Dublin.

With six more hearing aid day centres opened by 1984, Advance had forged for itself a solid reputation within Ireland. The company was able to move to larger premises in Aston Quay, Dublin, and opened a new in-house department with its own full time Technician-in-residence dedicated to the provision of professional hearing aid services and care.

This expansion of their capabilities allowed Advance to begin producing Philips Modular and Starkey custom hearing aids in-house. 1988 saw Advance’s Aston Quay Laboratory begin supplying custom hearing aids to a number of small hearing aid centres. By the end of 1990 Advance had opened a further eight day centres.

In 1991 Advance had six additional day centres when they acquired Maxwells Hearing Aid Service in Dublin.

Between 1995 and 1999 Advance opened six more day centres and extended their Hearing Aid Centre on two occasions, accomodating extra room for consultation, hearing aid service areas and a new laboratory with a second Technician. In 2001 James G. Sharkey took the wheel as Managing Director of Advance Hearing Care Centre Ltd.

The new millennium saw Advance go from strength to strength as in 2003 James G. Sharkey was elected President of the Irish Society of Hearing Aid Audiologists. This was to be the year in which the Irish Government doubled its hearing aid grant from €350 to €700 per instrument. With Advance generating interest from the international hearing aid profession, in 2004 Starkey Laboratories in Minneapolis, Minnesota acquired the company and the following year Advance opened a second full-time Hearing Care Centre in Cork. They launched Reciever In Canal digital hearing aid technology in 2008 in the form of the Starkey ZON, and in 2009 celebrated thirty years of dedicated service to the Hard of Hearing in Ireland.