O’Briens group goes into liquidation

O’BRIENS Irish sandwich bars, a brand that will forever be synonymous with the days of the Celtic Tiger, has gone into liquidation.

The franchise group, set up by entrepreneur and one time Fine Gael candidate, Brody Sweeney, employs 800 people across the country and has outlets in Britain, Asia, Australia and the Middle East . The liquidator has said he wants to sell the group as a going concern.

Last year, Mr Sweeney led a growing group of retailers who warned they would collapse due to landlords’ refusal to lower rents as the economy began to quickly slow.

By this year, some of their outlets had become vacant and in July, some of the franchise businesses went into examinership.

The examiner tried to forge a takeover deal which would see Abrakebabra Investments buy the franchising group. But a High Court hearing last week led to the deal falling through.

Paul McCann from accountancy group Grant Thornton has been appointed official liquidator. Mr McCann, who has permission to continue trading for at least a week, said he will seek to sell the business and brand while retaining staff.

An independent accountant has advised the company it could operate as a going concern if certain measures were met.

It’s understood there is presently a deficiency of €4.1 million to creditors and this will increase to €6.3m if the company is wound up.

The company is responsible for a rent-roll of €483,000 per annum for 10 stores which are vacant, while another nine are “non-performing” leases which are now in arrears, the court was told.

Mr Justice Sean Ryan had been told in the High Court that Abrakebabra Investments Limited (AIL) was prepared to pump money into O’Briens in a proposed takeover of the company’s business in the Republic.

But the Graeme Beere and Denis Desmond-backed AIL takeover stipulated the proposed investment deal would collapse unless the company obtained High Court approval to breach its lease contracts.

The High Court refused, the examinership was halted and the group went into liquidation.

The company, which leased restaurant premises and then sub-let them to its franchisees, wanted the High Court to give it an escape route from being sandwiched as the middleman by allowing it to repudiate all leasing agreements.

The company leased the outlets that house its restaurants and takeaways and sub-let them to the franchisees, who owned the individual businesses. This meant the company paid the rent on premises to landlords and in turn charged the franchisees rent.