Benjys Irish expansion set to create 1,000 jobs

THE British sandwich bar chain Benjys is planning to expand in Ireland over the next two years and is offering a master franchise for the country.

London-based Benjys says it has already had a number of talks with several interested parties about selling the master franchise for Ireland as part of its plans to double its turnover to stg£40 million by 2005.

The master franchise for Ireland will hold both Benjys retail stores and the mobile franchise operation Benjys Delivered. The combined impact is expected to create 1,000 new jobs over the next two years.

“In May 2003 we embarked on becoming a national brand with our first openings outside of London in Birmingham,” said Benjys chief executive Ian Rickwood.

“Since then we have opened a further seven stores and have four more in development - now we intend to take advantage of an opportunity too good to miss.”

The first Benjys Delivered franchises went on sale in July 2003, since then more than 1000 enquiries and over 50 franchises have been sold putting it on track to be one of the fastest growing British franchises ever.

The first wave of franchisees will begin to operate on their routes early in 2004 marking the first major branded entry into an extremely fragmented mobile market estimated at stg£400m.

“We have already developed our infrastructure and capacity to handle this growth having spent the last two years re-engineering the business. The move to offering store franchises allows us to radically accelerate the process of rolling out the brand quickly and efficiently,” Mr Rickwood said.

He added: “Benjys success, and our Irish expansion plans, is a result of consumers giving up on high price alternatives and moving for the great quality low price of Benjys. We are committed to bringing low prices to the Irish market, to a point that the competition will find it difficult to match.”

The entry of Benjys to the Irish market will it see it go head to head with O’Briens Sandwich Bars, which is also embarking on an Irish and international expansion.