O'Brien's outlets in UK to be wound up

TWO O’BRIEN’S sandwich bar companies in Britain are set to be wound up after a year-long administration process that resulted in a £71,000 sterling (€87,000) payment to a secured creditor, Bank of Ireland.

A year ago, the British high court placed O’Brien’s Irish Sandwich Bars (UK) and its subsidiary O’Brien’s Irish Sandwich Bars (Property UK) in the charge of administrator, Cameron Gunn of corporate restructuring specialist, Resolve Partnership.

Statements of affairs for both entities, which were lodged with the British companies’ office last year, showed the parent company had an estimated deficit of £4.8 million while its property subsidiary had a shortfall of £3.4 million.

The two companies are set to be wound up as the administration has ended. The last stage in this process is the lodgment of a notice formally moving the companies from administration to dissolution. The administrator lodged this with the companies’ office earlier this month. The companies will be deemed to have been dissolved three months from that date.

Mr Gunn’s final report, which was completed earlier this month, shows that Bank of Ireland received £71,514 on foot of a fixed charge over the group’s assets. There were not enough funds to pay any other creditors.

The administrator had originally hoped to recover £400,000 due to the companies mainly from franchisees, but was ultimately only able to realise £86,617.

His report states that in some cases, company debtor records were totally inadequate and could not be relied on in any legal recovery proceedings.

The franchise business was transferred from O’Brien’s Sandwich Bars (UK) last year to a new company, O’Brien’s Franchising (UK) Ltd before the other companies were placed in administration.

The original parent, O’Brien’s Irish Sandwich Bars, bought the British and Northern Ireland franchise rights from its UK subsidiaries in late 2008 and subsequently transferred them to the new company as part of a group reorganisation.

In July last year, it bought a number of lease holds and other assets from the administrator for a total of £117,400.

The group’s founder, Brody Sweeney, is a director of O’Brien’s Franchising UK. He is no longer a shareholder in the Irish business, which Abrakebabra Investments, backed by Graeme Beere and concert promoter, Denis Desmond, bought out of liquidation last October. The Irish business is owned by a new entity, Impless, which has no involvement in O’Brien’s Sandwich Bars in Britain or Northern Ireland.

Last year, O’Brien’s businesses in Ireland and Britain ended up seeking court protection from their creditors largely because many of the franchise outlets could not meet the rents on their leases.

The British-registered companies were placed in administratorship in June, while the Republic of Ireland-registered entities were placed in examinership a month later.

Mr Beere and Mr Desmond came close to buying the Irish operation out of examinership in the autumn, but their bid was stymied by a court ruling which prevented the company repudiating or exiting a number of leases on franchised outlets.