Magazines Archives - 2010 February

Subway opens more than 2,000 new restaurants globally in 2009
Story 11 - Food Business Asia

Subway, a restaurant brand name that is synonymous with offering “healthier dining options”, continued its outlet expansion across North America and the world in 2009. Despite the financial meltdown felt across many global economies, Subway said that it opened 2,164 new locations across the US, Canada and 67 countries.

With more than 32,000 outlets in 90 countries, the US chain is getting closer to becoming the world’s single-largest restaurant brand in terms of number of outlets.

The fast-growing restaurant chain garnered several development milestones last year. New store openings accounted for approximately 2.6 million sqf of prime commercial retail space, while the total international store count added up to more than 9,200 restaurants.

Les Winograd, the spokesperson for the Subway restaurant chain, said: “In May, we reached a record 31,000 locations worldwide. That record was later broken in November when we reached 32,000 stores. Store expansion climbed in international markets with 1,300 locations opened in the UK, 700
in Germany and 400 in Mexico, where the number of Subway restaurants also surpassed the number of McDonald’s restaurants operating in the country.”

In Canada, the Subway chain reached a high of 2,400 locations from coast to coast, including 900 in the province of Ontario and 75 in Nova Scotia. Further milestones included 350 locations in Brazil, 175 in France, 150 in India, 100 in Ireland and 75 each in the Netherlands, Russia and Singapore.
2009 also saw the opening of the first Subway restaurants in Macau and Slovakia.

In addition, Subway registered strong growth on its home turf, with a milestone of 22,000 open and operating locations in the US.

In the non-traditional development category, the Subway chain now has more than 7,200 locations in places such as airports, department stores, hospitals and park & recreational facilities, said
Winograd. Recent openings include Subway stores at airports in the Nicaraguan capital of Managua, in Montreal, Canada, and Prague, Czech Republic, corporate centres in Belgium and India; college campuses from across the US to the UA E; big-box retailers from Sweden to Saskatoon, Canada; and
the famed Nurburgring Racetrack in Germany.

But, perhaps the most non-traditional of the non-traditional is multi-unit franchisee, Richard Schragger’s, newest store in New York City. For the next two years, it will be located on top of the world — on a crane, rising alongside the construction of One World Trade Center (also known as
the Freedom Tower) — providing meals for construction workers as the structure rises 108 storeys. At 1,776ft, the tower will be the tallest building in the US and among the tallest buildings in the world.

In December 2009, Subway was again named the No.1 Franchise Opportunity, as well as the No.1 Global Franchise opportunity for 2010, by Entrepreneur magazine in its annual“Franchise 500” rankings. This is the 17th time in the past 23 years that the chain has been recognised with the
overall top honour, said Winograd.

Meanwhile, Advertising Age magazine included Subway US$5 foot-long sandwiches in its list of the “10 Best Products of the Decade” while the restaurant industry publication QSR put the Subway chain on its list of “10 Great Franchise Deals”.

To view other stories, get a copy of Retail Asia. To subscribe, please download the subscription form from http://www.retailasiaonline.com/subscription.html