O'Brien's Irish Sandwich Bars has set up a joint venture with Jay Bourke and Eoin Foyle to franchise their Café Bar Deli restaurant concept, writes Ciarán Hancock.

Brody Sweeney, O'Brien's founder, said the two groups plan to set up 20 franchised restaurants over the next four years, primarily in Dublin. If successful, they will expand the concept to the UK and other countries.

The two food operators have set up a company called Café Bar Deli (Franchising) Ltd, based at O'Brien's head office in Dublin.

"It should be relatively easy to bolt this on to our existing [ O'Brien's] office," Mr Sweeney said.

Café Bar Deli was founded by publicans Mr Bourke and Mr Foyle in 2001 with a view to offering good-quality, Mediterranean-style food at reasonable prices. Its menu comprises a range of pizza, pasta and salad options.

It has six restaurants in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Sligo, including the iconic Bewley's cafe on Grafton Street.

Latest accounts for Cafebardeli Ltd show it had "revenue reserves" of €145,569 at the end of December 2006.

O'Brien's has 125 outlets in Ireland and 300 across the 16 countries in which it operates. It has annual turnover of €140 million.

With the sandwich chain close to saturation in many urban areas, Mr Sweeney said this was a logical extension of the business.

"This will keep our franchisees motivated and gives us another brand that they can expand with us," Mr Sweeney said.

"We've had discussions with our larger franchisees and expect to get commitments from them."

Café Bar Deli's website lists a number of potential locations for franchised restaurants, including 18 in Dublin, five in Belfast and four in Cork.

It also lists Galway, Limerick, Derry, Letterkenny, Sligo, Castlebar, Drogheda, Dundalk, Ennis, Kilkenny, Wexford and Waterford as potential locations.

The estimated capital cost to franchise operators is €800,000 based on a 279sq m (3,000sq ft) property with 100 seats. This includes a licence fee and franchise package fee of €25,000 each.

Operators will be expected to commit about €350,000 of their own finances to the project.

O'Brien's and the Café Bar Deli owners are expected to invest about €1 million.

Mr Bourke and Mr Foyle will retain ownership of their existing restaurants, which will operate as part of the franchised model.