Bread 41, the popular high-end bakery and cafe group, is to double its footprint in and around Dublin over the next 18 months.

The company was opened in 2018 on Pearse Street, Dublin 2, by Eoin Cluskey, who is a chef, and Stephen McKenna. They have since opened bakeries in Stillorgan, Cabinteely and Greystones.

A fifth store will open in Bray, Co Wicklow, in the next four weeks, Cluskey said on Friday, while at least three more stores will be opened before the end of next year.

In terms of locations, he said one will be on Dublin’s north side, while another will be located within “another seaside town”.

“If I don’t open one on the north side, they are going to come for me,” Cluskey said. “I get a lot of grief for not opening a bakery on the north side, and we’re actively looking there.

“Then we’ll sit down and look at it. We’ll focus on Dublin for the next 16 months. We’ll look further afield then. It’s an all-Ireland approach. We are looking at other opportunities.”

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Cluskey described a bakery as a “massive investment”, and not like opening a cafe “where you can just put €40,000″ in. “Our coffee set-up alone is €65,000,” he said.

“Our fit-out costs are coming in at €250,000 before we even look at an oven. Small ovens are another €100,000. We use a local joiner who could be in the region of €60,000-€100,000.

“A small bakery nowadays is costing me anywhere from €300,000-€500,000. So it’s a lot different from opening a cafe and putting a couple of seats in. We’re stripping right back to the bone and building stuff to last.”

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Accounts filed on Friday for Bread Nation, the company behind the bakery, show profit for the financial year ended June 2025 was €606,736, up from €543,632 the year before. The company grew its headcount from 58 to 81 over that period.

Cluskey said “every cent” made is reinvested in the business. “We still don’t want to take money and give away equity so we are in control of our own destiny,” he said. “I’m super happy the business still exists as a start-up.

“It’s great that the model is proving to be resilient and profitable. We need to be able to guarantee staff that we are able to pay their wages every Friday, which can be difficult at times.”

Cluskey said there is “uncertainty out there at the moment” in terms of the cost of living and doing business, something he asserted will “take years” to fix.

“I literally just bought diesel and the price of it had gone up by 20 cents a litre in less than 12 hours,” he said. “I’ve got four vans on the road. It’s absolutely mental, I couldn’t believe it.

“Look at the cost of goods. I know a haulier who imports flour and grain for us. His bill has gone up by €7,000 a week. This is going to take years to fix.”

That being said, Bread 41 customers have voted with their feet since the first premises opened, with people frequently happy to queue for long periods to purchase its high-quality sourdough bread and pastries.