New restaurant chain pledges to create 500 jobs

It has been announced this morning that 500 new jobs are to be created in an expansion of the Café Bar Deli restaurant chain in a joint venture with O’Briens Sandwich Bars.

The new company will open 20 new restaurants in Ireland over the next four years, before expanding the concept into the UK and overseas.

Café Bar Deli was founded in 2001, by pub entrepreneurs Jay Bourke and Eoin Foyle.

Four outlets have been opened, including the company’s flagship outlet in Bewleys Café on Grafton Street, Dublin.

Bourke and Foyle are well-known in Dublin for stepping in to rescue the Dublin institution Bewleys on Grafton Street, which was about to close down.

Commenting on behalf of O’Briens, founder of O’Briens Sandwich Bars, Brody Sweeney said: "We are really looking forward to working with Café Bar Deli on this joint venture.

"We have a lot of experience of building a brand through franchising and expertise we can leverage to build Café Bar Deli around the country."

Commenting on the partnership Jay Bourke, founder of Café Bar Deli said: "We are excited at the prospect of working with O’Briens.

"For some time now the number of people eating out regularly has been increasing and our success as a chain so far has reflected that.

"The O’Briens franchising model has been extremely successful in growing the O’Briens brand which now has almost 300 stores across 15 countries. We are delighted to use their franchising knowledge in order to grow the Café Bar Deli brand."

The new company, which will be managed by Brody Sweeney, is to be launched at Hospitality Expo 2008 in the RDS from February 4-6.