Quiznos’ new modular design will be the standard across their new stores. The new look was decided based on consumer research.
Quiznos is growing once again, most recently signing a 30-unit development agreement with Parish Patel for locations across Arizona. The deal marks Patel’s return to the system as Quiznos and President Tim Casey aim to revitalize a brand that was once a giant in the sub sandwich segment.
Patel’s first stint as a Quiznos franchisee began in 2003 with a store in Tucson, Arizona. As someone who always wanted to be an entrepreneur, the opportunity at the time was too good to pass up.
“A family friend came about and brought us this opportunity of a franchise business named Quiznos back in the day,” Patel said. He went on to operate four stores total and kept them until 2015, when he moved on to other opportunities with Milano Restaurants out of California.
He came back to Quiznos this year and said in the new team he sees “the commitment” and people who can bring “us back to the top 10 QSR that we were once.”
Parish Patel is back with Quiznos, signing a 30-unit deal with the brand. He plans to open his first location in early 2023.
That new team includes Casey, who has been with Rego Restaurants for four years. The company was established by High Bluff Capital Partners after the private equity firm acquired Quiznos and Taco Del Mar in 2018. Rego also operates Dairy Queen restaurants and three foodservice locations in the Denver International Airport.
Another attraction is the brand’s stated “franchisee-first model,” which Patel said wasn’t previously part of the Quiznos culture. Now, his input is being taken into account. There’s a new sense of security behind the business for Patel, and the ability to have a voice when it comes to making sure he is successful as a franchisee.
For Casey, this new approach has multiple aspects to keep the franchisee at the forefront. One of those is continuing innovation. While a common option now, Quiznos was among the first sub shops to offer toasting. Casey wants the brand to be a trendsetter as it grows.
One way it’s doing this is through an exclusive partnership with BCubed Manufacturing. The company will build modular drive-thru restaurants at its facility in Michigan and ship them fully equipped, pre-wired and pre-plumbed to franchisees. According to Casey, these units are smaller, about 650 square feet, and require only a third of an acre to be installed. This allows franchisees to make smaller investments, save time and choose their locations more freely, he said.
It also marks a renewed push for a brand that famously shrunk from a high of 4,700 U.S. sub shops in 2007 to 308 at the end of 2018 as bad real estate decisions, unqualified operators and poor unit volumes finally caught up with it. It had 202 stores in the U.S. at the end of 2021 and the total count continued to dwindle in 2022, to about 170.
President and CEO of Rego Restaurants, Tim Casey, has been hard at work with Quiznos for the last four years.
The total investment for a Quiznos “Qube,” the main vehicle for the brand’s expansion, is between $398,100 and $792,000. The company will only grant franchises for traditional strip center or mall restaurants if the location doesn’t allow for the modular option.
While growth is the main goal, Casey doesn’t want franchisees to grow too fast, either. In that sense, he said, it’s about keeping things manageable and supporting the franchisees as much as possible to ultimately drive revenue.
To that end, Rego went deep into consumer research. This included the new color scheme for the restaurants, any menu changes and learning what customers wanted to get out of the Quiznos experience. What was discovered was consumers still had an interest in the brand, setting the stage for continued relevancy while keeping aspects that people remember.
“Really what’s great about the brand is the consumer awareness is so high,” Casey said. Ultimately, the changes and new brand direction are aimed at improving the top and bottom lines for the company and its franchisees.
Patel plans to open his first location in Tucson in 2023, with the whole of his 30-unit deal expected to open over the next five to seven years. According to Casey, Quiznos is seeing continued growth with fans of the brand and has “dozens” of deals signed so far.