Anyone looking for willing franchisees in Ireland over the next few years will be hoping that potential recruits haven't been reading the tale of woe emerging from the examinership process at O'Brien's.

The franchisees of this sandwich company must be regretting ever signing up to the company's terms, seeing as its product line is badly outdated and its onerous franchise conditions place the franchisee in a very difficult position in a recession.

O'Brien's is desperate to put together a rescue deal, but while its product can still be improved (lose the doorstep bread maybe?) the main sticking point appears to be repudiating the leases the company took out during the boom.

Concert promoter Denis Desmond and fast food entrepreneur Graeme Beere want to take over the sandwich chain, but there is a problem. O'Brien's, not the franchisees, is liable up front for the leases, and the would-be acquirers want the company to assign, surrender or even repudiate these leases.

If the leases are too onerous, expensive and downright uncommercial the obvious question is who negotiated them in the first place? Well that would be O'Brien's.

Now there is talk about getting the long-suffering franchisees to take up the leases, even though up to now they've just been sub-letters.

Most of the franchisees want the company to survive, although others have lost all hope. But the sting in the tail is that, unless the franchisees mop up the leases, the suitors may evaporate and liquidation could be the unpalatable alternative.

But there is now even talk of a sting within the sting of the tail. If O'Brien's repudiates the leases, the hapless franchisees could now become direct tenants of the landlords, even though they were not responsible for the original agreements. Talk about being the meat within the sandwich.