US failure costs O'Brien's €500,000

O'Brien's Irish Sandwich Bars has had to write off about €500,000 arising from its failed venture in the US.

Founder of the franchise group Brody Sweeney said 2004 was "probably the best year for us in a long time" and that profits had been made, for the first time, by its UK and Singapore subsidiaries. "We pulled out of the US and that took the profit from us. An inter-company loan of around €500,000 was written off," Mr Brody said.

After the write-off the group made a profit of €13,238 in 2004, compared to €712,854 the previous year. The company's net assets at year-end were €4.1 million. The company did not disclose its turnover, but Mr Brody said it was ahead 24 per cent.

Bank of Scotland owns 20 per cent of the franchise company and a group of investors represented by Merrion Stockbrokers own a further 11 per cent. The remaining 69 per cent is owned by Mr Brody and employee shareholders, who own approximately 10 per cent. O'Brien's employs 60 staff directly, while the franchise outlets employ about 3,000 people.

Mr Sweeney said the UK business was "beginning to come right" with 150 outlets. The Singapore company has about 30 outlets in Asia. There are 110 O'Brien's outlets in Ireland and 15 in Spain, the Netherlands, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and Australia.

The notes to the sandwich bars' accounts show loans to subsidiaries of €3.9 million at end 2004. They also show that the UK subsidiary made a profit of £9,016 (€13,109) and the Singapore subsidiary made 113,466 Singapore dollars (€54,465). The US subsidiary lost $108,805 (€89,757).