O'Briens franchise

Mocrie14

I'm think of buying an O'Briens sandwich bar franchise in south Dublin. I'm only just beginning to look into it. Anyone got any advice/comments??


Thanks in advance!

zedsDeadBaby

Why not just open a sandwich bar and call it O'Byrnes Sandwich bar?
People don't go to O'Briens because its O'Briens. They go just for a sandwich.
O'Briens brand name is not as strong as people seem to think.
Although, if you need the training etc a franchise might be the way to go.

Nuttzz

they are pricey! and i think the food tastes bland too.....

Zascar

Take a look at all the options, not just O'Briens. ItsaBagel is doing really well, but is still small enough to get in early. Starbucks are going to be opening here soon too...

b20uvkft6m5xwg

make sure theres no starbucks planned for the area, as they'll take most of your coffee/tea trade and also alot of your pre-made sambos & salads trade.

alleepally

Here's a surefire way to determine viability. Spend about 2 or 3 weeks observing customer flow in O'Brien's in or around the area you are condering. literally count the number of customers coming out with product. Look at the menu on the board and get an average cost of item in the store, the do the maths and work out what the average take is. O'Briens will provide figures for you but you need to satisfy yourself that your investment will provide a return.

Once you have done the observation of the existing stores, look carefully at the site where you plan to put a new store. What offices are close by, where is the competition, is there passing trade, what is the footfall on the path outside the shop. Again, all of these things are easy to do.

I disagree with a previous poster who says that people don't go to O'Briens because of the name.

Scenario as follows. I'm walking along a street, feeling hungry, want a sandwich. I see an O'Briens and I see a "John Doe's Take Away Sandwiches". I, like most consumers will go for the name I've heard of. It is unfortunate, but Franchising has changed the way we consume and squeezes out the "John Doe's" of the world.

vinnyfitz

Rumour has it that O'Briens management are currently squeezing every margin (and franchisee) with a view to selling the business.

I'd be cautious. Check out how many franchisees are selling out at the moment, track them down and ask them why....
Why is the one you are looking at for sale for a start?...
But check out a couple of others too.

spongebob

Keep an eye on Daltons in case there is a Lemming like rush .

http://www.daltonsbusiness.com/FranchiseReSales.asp?sectorCode=3-Catering&county=0&Minprice=0&maxprice=3000000&Tenure=0&franchise=1&accommodation=0&btnNow=Search+Now

I see that a Glasgow and Perth and Falkirk ones are on offer too, wonder what Vinnyfitz knows

M

ferdi

the food is shiet and over priced. stay away.

yellum

Originally posted by Zascar
Starbucks are going to be opening here soon too...

They're not a franchise.

Victor

Originally posted by yellum
They're not a franchise.

Ni, but they are a major threat to franchise coffee / sandwich operations.

Subway are expanding and putting in about 100 stores.

The thing about all these operations is group bulk buying and standardisation to cut down on overheads. Be aware of franchise fees both upfront and running.

eth0_

Originally posted by Zascar
Starbucks are going to be opening here soon too...

That rumour has been around for YEARS. Have you any fact to back up this statement?

Sleepy

It's all over the media that Starbucks are looking at coming in.

b20uvkft6m5xwg

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/front/2004/0218/3671441938HM1STARBUCKS.html

Starbucks cafe chain plans to launch in Ireland later this year



Starbucks, the world's largest café chain, has commissioned a Dublin-based architecture firm to design 30 stores for what is expected to be its long-awaited launch into the Irish market later this year. The multi-billion dollar venture plans to open its first outlet in Northern Ireland and then initiate a rapid roll-out of 29 coffee houses across the country, writes Gretchen Friemann

Mr Robbie Cohen, an architect with Douglas Wallace, which was responsible for the design of the five-star Morrison Hotel, is drawing up the blueprints for the Northern Ireland outlet at the request of Starbucks's London office, but declined to discuss the project due to a confidentiality contract.

The corporation's UK marketing director, Ms Cathy Heseltine, was also unavailable for comment.

Although an official announcement of the Irish launch may not be made for some weeks, the enlistment of an architecture firm confirms years of speculation that the Republic's accelerating café market is ripe for consolidation by a major international player. And they don't come any bigger than Starbucks. The café chain, whose green-and-white mermaid trademark is recognised in over 32 countries, has pursued a relentless overseas expansion policy recently after its near saturation of the US market began to undermine its ability to grind out new profits.

Last month Paris became the latest city to feature on what the Economist dubs its "lattenomics" scale, which shows whether currencies are at their "correct" level against the dollar by comparing the cost of a Starbucks tall latte around the world. The French capital now ranks as one of the most expensive cities in the world to buy a Starbucks coffee, with Bangkok qualifying as the cheapest, as the Thai currency is 31 per cent undervalued against the dollar.

However, such rapid international recognition has come at a price, with anti-globalisation and anti-war protesters regularly targeting the company as a symbol of US cultural imperialism.

Starbucks to launch 30 Irish outlets: Commercial Property

spongebob

O Briens have 33 outlets in Scotland of which 5 are for sale in Daltons Weekly at present.



M

Sarsfield

Starbucks coffee is crap. And we're finally getting a Hard Rock Cafe too. Jeez, we really have arrived :rolleyes:

casper-

Originally posted by Victor
Ni, but they are a major threat to franchise coffee / sandwich operations.

Subway are expanding and putting in about 100 stores.

The thing about all these operations is group bulk buying and standardisation to cut down on overheads. Be aware of franchise fees both upfront and running.

Any newspaper links to that? I do like Subway

b20uvkft6m5xwg

Originally posted by Sarsfield
Starbucks coffee is crap.

//maybe its the starbaucks currently in my bloodstream talking & Not that somebody needs to stick up for starbucks here but... //

The product isnt crap. The quality of the end product in your cup varies though as you can have idiot baristas brewing the thing.

Its like saying Guinness is crap because the barman doesnt know how to pull a pint properly.

Victor

Originally posted by casper-
Any newspaper links to that? I do like Subway

Try the SBP www.thepost.ie

Tehy have opened a place in Rathmines and another on the Quays so far.

eth0_

Originally posted by 80project
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/front/2004/0218/3671441938HM1STARBUCKS.html

:-))))
Hurray! I f*cking love starbucks. I don't feel a bit sorry for the smaller coffeeshops going out of business as the majority of them (In Dublin at least) are crap. Esquires are probably the nearest we have to starbucks at the moment and they do make nice coffee.

I think a subway franchise would be a much better idea than O'Briens...as someone previously said, OB's food is utterly bland and overpriced for what you get. Subway, on the other hand, have the most delicious menu and you get much more for your money. There are more subway outlets in Canada and the USA than there are McDonalds, apparently, which says a lot about their appeal.

Cal

If it's the Blackrock unit you are looking at beware. It seems overpriced and you have to ask yourself the 'real' reason they are offloading it. (They do know the business well)

Cal

pete

For a quick scare I would suggest popping into a book shop and having a quick read of the chapter(s) in Fast Food Nation that deal with franchising.

As it happens, Subway get a particularly hard time. Can't find a direct quote, so here's someone else's summary:

The book reports that Subway currently has some of the worst franchising practicies-- They had the lowest franchising fee of the major chains and took one the highest percentage of profits. "Dean Sager, a former staff economist for the U.S. House of Representative's Small Business Committee, has called Subway the "worst" franchise in America. "Subway is the biggest problem in franchising," Sager told Fortune magazine in 1998, "and emerges as one of the key examples of every [franchise] above you can think of."" For example, in 1996, 109 new Subways relied on money from the U.S. government's Small Business Administration for financing. It would be nice if multi-million dollar transnational corporations felt they could get by without using tax-payer money earmarked for small businesses.

From http://mark.stosberg.com/Ideas/Book_Reviews/fast-food-nation.html

alleepally

A good book alright. Another one I read was "Nickle and Dimed" - journo goes undercover and works min wage jobs. One she worked in was a "Merry Maids" franchise. Abhorrent practices and I just wondered then what sort of person runs a franchise. The answer I came up with couldn't be printed.....

Sarsfield

Originally posted by 80project
[BThe product isnt crap. The quality of the end product in your cup varies though as you can have idiot baristas brewing the thing.

Its like saying Guinness is crap because the barman doesnt know how to pull a pint properly. [/B]

Fair enough. I got a bit carried away. However my experiences with Starbucks have been less than memorable.

IMO, Insomnia does the best black coffee in town. But I still buy my mocha from O'Briens (Abbey St., old prices) on the way to work every morning.

Never been to Subway. Must try it out based on comments here.

casper-

Originally posted by Sarsfield
Never been to Subway. Must try it out based on comments here.

One quick word of warning (from someone who _does_ like Subway), I finally tried out the one close to Cleary's in town and..

a) the chicken breast meat was _frozen_ at 1pm on a Saturday, and the counter attendant (obviously foreign with very little English skills) was still attempting to pull away chunks of meat and put it in my sub. I wasn't even paying attention until my wife asked what he thought he was doing

b) (i'm assuming this will change if they do show up in full force with 100 stores) the selection of toppings / subs still seems to be a subset of the real thing &tm; although it may be because the places they've picked for stores are about the absolute minimum size you can get and still almost fit a Subway in.

Fingers crossed for the improvements