Supermac's owner Pat McDonagh said he doesn't see the food trade returning to normal until the middle of 2021.
The Galway man says the coronavirus pandemic has hit the business hard but they have to adapt and find a way to overcome it.
A number of Supermac's stores already opened earlier this month with takeaway services and they hope to open more in the coming weeks.
Speaking on RTE Radio One's Des' Ireland's Discs, Mr McDonagh said: "It's a difficult time but this time will pass and we'll get through it. You have to adapt to the conditions that are there.
"These are conditions that we've never experienced before but it's crucial to make difficult decisions at this stage in order to survive for the future and that's really what companies have to do.
"You have to prepare for the worst scenario and hope for the best. It's going to be a difficult few years.
"It's the uncertainty of the situation that is the biggest challenge.
"Unfortunately the tourism sector and food business we're involved in has been affected badly and i don't see that coming back probably until middle of next year or maybe hopefully earlier than that.
"You have to adapt and do whatever you have to do, whether that's lay-offs unfortunately or pay cuts."
The fast food boss also spoke about his victorious trademark battle with McDonald's last year.
Mr McDonagh said that even though the odds were stacked against them he was never going to back down.
The Galway man said: "McDonald's are a big company, a great company, the biggest in their field and sometimes bigger companies can challenge smaller companies.
"The advantages we have over them is our decision making is pretty much local, there's is maybe in Chicago.
"I suppose what we were trying to do was expand further afield and were being blocked by trademark disputes.
"I felt this wasn't fair and even though 15 or 20 companies had taken on the trademark dispute before us, most had either pulled out because it was too expensive, it goes on for a long time.
"But we stuck too it and I think when we found out there was over 800 trademarks that McDonald's had but weren't using we went the whole hog. Succesfully.
"We had a great team behind us, three or four great advisors and a good trademark lawyer in Dublin, there's very little you can't achieve without a good team.
"Sometimes you've to live by your convictions, decide on your ability, your own conscious and will power. You don't want to feel bad about yourself that you didn't do it afterwards and have regrets about it.
"Whether we won it or lost it we were going to fight it."
