He said the decision to wind up the UK companies is part of a strategic refocus on Camile’s “flagship” business in Ireland, which continues to expand its footprint and will open its 50th restaurant here by the end of the year. “We’ve got to protect our position here in Ireland,” he said. “We have a decent business here and we want to hang on to that and the UK is tougher than we thought it would be.
Mr Sweeney said the decision to put the companies into liquidation “was really about getting rid of our leases” and that “we hope to get back into the market again in a year or two, but we do have a foothold”. He said: “It’s a failure of the business model, rather than people didn’t like our Thai food.”