With the purchase of Subway, one of the world’s largest quick-service restaurant brands, Roark takes control of Subway’s nearly 37,000 stores in more than 100 countries and territories.
Eight months after the deal was first announced, the long-anticipated sale of Subway to Roark Capital is finally complete after federal regulators signed off on the acquisition, according to the sandwich chain.
Roark’s acquisition of Subway for a reported $9.6 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal, was held up by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which had concerns the sale would give the Atlanta-based private equity giant an unfair advantage in the sandwich restaurant business. Inspire Brands, another Roark-backed restaurant holding company, acquired Jimmy John’s in 2019.
By completing one of the largest acquisition deals in franchise history, the private-equity firm now owns two of the biggest sub sandwich companies in the United States. Roark, which also owns the Arby’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, Sonic Drive-In, Mister Donut, Dunkin’ and Baskin-Robbins chains and has $38 billion in equity under management, went into the Subway deal with a combined 31,700 restaurant locations and $30 billion in system sales.
With the purchase of Subway, one of the world’s largest quick-service restaurant brands, Roark takes control of Subway’s nearly 37,000 stores in more than 100 countries and territories.
The Subway sale this week follows the chain’s release of its 2024 franchise disclosure document that showed the company closed more than 400 U.S. restaurants last year, continuing a long string of net closures. The Miami-based sandwich giant finished 2023 with 20,133 U.S. locations, its lowest number of restaurants since 2005. Subway has closed 7,000 locations since 2015.
Subway’s FDD also disclosed that revenue increased 10.3 percent to $971.9 million last year with 40 percent of that total revenue coming from the company’s vendors that sell food ingredients and equipment to franchisees.
The company made a slew of executive changes last year, including naming a new president of North America.
Despite all its unit losses and reported franchisee discontent, Subway remains one of the largest restaurant chains in the world. It landed at No. 7 on the Franchise Times Top 400 rankings with $19.1 billion in systemwide sales in 2022.
Subway said its same-store sales rose 5.9 percent in North America in 2023, continuing a run of 12 consecutive quarters of positive same-store sales globally, and positive global net restaurant growth for the first time since 2016.
“The entire Subway system is excited that our sale to Roark is complete,” said Subway CEO John Chidsey in a statement. “As we look to our future, our growth journey is far from over. With a continued strategic focus on delivering better food and a better guest experience, our next chapter will be the most exciting yet.”