Expansion costs at the company behind the Five Guys franchise in Ireland contributed to losses of €1.1m at the business last year.

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

Today, Five Guys operates four outlets around Dublin at South Great George's Street, Blackrock, Swords and the Dundrum shopping centre.

New accounts lodged by the Desmond brothers' Anart Restaurants Ltd show that the company recorded losses of €1.1m in the 12 months to the end of March last.

The loss followed losses of €175,427 in the prior year.

The 2019 loss takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of €224,415.

At the end of March last, Anart had accumulated losses of €1.5m.

The increased number of stores last year resulted in the numbers employed increasing from 49 to 96 made up of 83 store crew and 13 in management.

The expansion also resulted in the value of the company’s fixed assets increasing from €978,217 to €3.7m last year.

The company’s expansion was funded from additional loans of €2.54m from group undertakings.

At the end of March last, the company owed group undertakings €3.94m and a note attached to the accounts states that the amounts owed due to the group undertakings are unsecured, interest free and repayable on demand.

The company's cash pile increased from €128,223 to €184,188.

The Desmonds also operate the Five Guys franchise in Northern Ireland.

Separate accounts for the company which operates the business in Northern Ireland, Nestrana Belfast Ltd show that it recorded a pre-tax loss of £302,532 in the 12 months to the end of March last.

This followed revenues increasing by 54% from €1.74m from €2.7m as a result of the number of restaurants the company operates from one to three.

Numbers employed increased from 27 to 65. The directors state that the loss was arrived at after a number of exceptional costs of £265,497.

The directors state that the company's earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization and before exceptional costs was a positive £149,308.