The chain was brought to Ireland by sons of billionaire financier Dermot Desmond. Photo: Getty

The company behind the Five Guys restaurant franchise here last year returned to profit to record post-tax profits of €54,816.

The sons of billionaire financier Dermot Desmond – Brett, Ross and Dery – brought the US fast casual food franchise here in 2016.

Now, new accounts for the Desmond family’s Anart Restaurants Ltd show that it recorded post-tax profits of €54,816 in the 12 months to the end of June 2024 and this compares to post-tax losses of €315,934 in the previous 12 months – a positive swing of €370,750.

Today, Five Guys operates four premium burger outlets around Dublin at South Great George’s Street, the Pavilions shopping centre in Swords, the Dundrum shopping centre and one at Liffey Valley.

Numbers employed by the business declined by five from 107 to 102, made up of 94 in-store crew and eight in management.

The profit last year takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of €412,474 as the book value of the company’s tangible assets reduced to €2.12m.

The profit last year reduced the company’s accumulated losses to €2.69m at the end of last June.

The accounts have been prepared on a going concern basis “and the company’s ability to continue as a going concern is dependent upon its ability to trade profitably in the future”.

The note adds that “the group will not seek repayment for the amounts owed amounting to €4.14m (down from €4.32m in 2023) until the company has sufficient resources to meet this obligation”.

The note adds that the directors have also considered the cash flows of the company and believe the company will be able to trade profitably in the future.

The company’s cash funds increased sharply from €40,133 to €258,013.

Anart Restaurants Ltd is a subsidiary of the Jersey based Hasco Ltd. The accounts state that the consolidated accounts for Hasco are not publicly available. A note attached to the accounts states that the ultimate controlling party is the Desmond family.

Five Guys was first established by the Murrell family in 1986 in the US state of Virginia.

The Desmond brothers will be hoping to repeat the success of the Five Guys’ UK arm.

The most recent accounts for Five Guys JV Ltd for 2023 show that it recorded pre-tax profits of £8m (€9.6m) after revenues had increased by 14pc to £316.42m.