PROFILE BRODY SWEENEY: The founder of O'Briens sandwich bars profited hugely from the boom, but it seems people have had their fill of the franchise now that the recession is here
'IN LIFE'S great journey, where you buy your sandwiches just isn't up there with love, sex, death, children, where you live, and your career." Brody Sweeney, whose company, O'Briens Irish Sandwich Bars, was placed in liquidation this week, made this observation in his book, Making Bread: The Real Way to Start Up and Stay Up in Business. It would appear that the sandwich-buying public agree, because lately they haven't been going much to O'Briens.
In the same book, in a section called “Love your franchise partners”, Sweeney writes: “I want my business associates to know that I would lay down my life for them . . . I know that many of the people who work for me would do almost anything for me. It’s a lovely feeling.”
Right now, there’s unlikely to be much fuzzy warm feeling transmitted between Sweeney and the franchise-holders who helped to make him a millionaire. After news of the liquidation broke this week, it emerged that a number of franchise-holders in Britain were considering legal action over a deal involving transfer of leases at the end of 2008.
Dublin-born Brody Sweeney’s real Christian name is Francis. The nickname, Brody, was given to him as a child by his parents, and he liked it so much he kept it. As a teenager he had a poster of a Porsche 911 on his wall, and set himself a goal that he would become a millionaire by the age of 30. An enthusiastic musician, which was his first career choice, he once played Johnny Fingers in a Christmas school production. He attended Blackrock College and, later, Rockwell College. In 1981, during Sweeney’s second year of business studies at what is now Dublin City University, he dropped out to go into business with his father.
They bought the Irish licence to Prontaprint, a photocopying franchise, which Sweeney ran for eight years. He opened 16 outlets around the country and never turned a profit, later describing it as a “useful learning experience”. This failure did not put him off business, however. On a visit to the US in 1987, he came across Subway, a highly successful made-to-order sandwich franchise, and had the idea for a chain of sandwich shops in Ireland.
The brand name O’Briens was taken from the phone book, as representing a typical and recognisable Irish name. At the time, none of the other sandwich shops in the country were branded. Sweeney liked the fact that sandwiches required relatively little preparation and no cooking, meaning that he could employ low-skilled workers. The most recognisable O’Briens contribution to the sandwich was – and still is – the thick sliced bread it uses.
In 1994, when the business had three shops in Dublin, it launched its franchise scheme. At the time, its most expensive product was a “filler”, a triple-decker with three different kinds of meat, cheese and salad, which sold for £2.75 (€3.50) – a high price, given that this was 15 years ago and you can buy a similar sandwich for much the same cost today.
People paid the asking prices. The recession of the 1980s was behind them, and they were choosing convenience at lunchtime over the cheaper option of bringing their own lunches to work.
By 1998, the fortietth outlet had opened, at Dublin airport, and the franchises had a presence in other countries, including Britain and Sweden. The following year, O’Briens signed a 30-outlet agreement for Asia with a Singapore-based company. This contract came about through the kind of random luck and synchronicity that no business plan can predict. Alex Hoyes-Cock, then a student at the Royal College of Surgeons, regularly ate his lunch at a nearby branch of O’Briens, and was so impressed by the sandwiches that he told his father, Hugh Hoyes-Cock, a British accountant who had been based in Singapore for 20 years. Next time his father visited Dublin, they both ate in O’Briens. The result was that they approached Sweeney with the 30-outlet franchise offer in Asia. At the time, Sweeney admits, he wasn’t even sure where Singapore was.
From that point, the business continued to expand at speed. The ambition was to hit 1,000 outlets. In 2000, the business was valued at €18 million.
Sweeney recognised that coffee had a high profit margin, and installed machines in the shops. Coffee quickly became a key seller for the chain, with cappuccino its top seller, alongside the chicken and bacon triple-decker sandwich. There was still plenty of disposable income around, and people made a habit of buying takeaway coffees and cappuccinos on a regular basis.
IN HIS PERSONALlife, Sweeney is married with four children, and spends his time between homes in Sligo and Dublin's Sandymount. A keen sailor, he keeps a traditional 100-year-old wooden hooker, Gleoiteog. He is also a non-executive director of betting chain Paddy Power.
In 2005, Sweeney published the first edition of Making Bread, a book offering advice to would-be entrepreneurs, drawing on his own experiences. In his chapter "Time is Money", where he shares time-management tips, he declares: "The two things I find to be the greatest time-wasters are going to the toilet and putting petrol in the car."
That year was probably the best in recent times for O’Briens. By then, there were 110 outlets in Ireland, 150 in Britain, 30 in Asia and a presence in Spain, the Netherlands, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and Australia. However, franchises in the US had failed, resulting in a write-off of an estimated €500,000. This was the first sign that the business was facing challenges.
In the 2007 general election, Sweeney decided to run for Fine Gael in the three-seat Dublin North-East constituency, a decision that some people consider resulted in him taking his attention away from the business at a time when he needed to be completely focused on it. Sweeney was certain he was going to win the election, putting some €100,000 of his own money into the campaign. His motivation for running was to make some contribution at community level. However, he polled just 3,529 first-preference votes and went out in the second count. Cllr Terence Flanagan won the seat instead.
Later, Sweeney said of Flanagan: “He was younger and better-looking . . . I thought if I got into government, I had a reasonable chance of becoming a minister and making things happen.”
Last year, the O'Briens franchises had a combined turnover of around €140 million a year. In January this year, speaking about the global recession, Sweeney told the Sunday Times: "When we have a bit of a downturn, we're not having a recession, it's a depression; we're not going down, we Irish are falling off a cliff. Perspective, perspective, perspective."
However, it is a fact that in a recession, people will always cut back on those things which are not necessities. One of these has been the takeaway coffee and sandwich. Among those who still have jobs, there has been a revival of the old tradition of taking lunch to work.
A dramatic fall in the number of customers has resulted in falling profits, but the real problem is that O’Briens leases many of its franchise outlets, then sub-lets them back to the franchise-holders. The combination of a decrease in business and falling property prices resulted in the company going into examinership in July, and now into liquidation.
In Making Bread, Sweeney advises optimism at all times, even when things go wrong.
“A leader’s job is to inspire confidence,” he writes. “If I’d let the rest of the team know the real story about the business, they would probably have started looking for new jobs. You always have to be optimistic, even when everyone around you is telling you you’re mad.”
CV BRODY SWEENEY
Who?Founder of O'Briens Sandwich Bars
Why is he in the news?The company was placed in liquidation this week
Most likely to say:"Why make your own sandwiches?"
Least likely to say:"You can get better coffee at Starbucks"
