Subway Revamp Continues With New Sandwiches, Deli Slicers | Franchise News

Trevor Haynes, Subway’s North America president, is calling this week’s rollout of new deli meat slicers at approximately 20,000 of its United States locations, and the promotion of four new sandwiches that will highlight the new slicers, “the largest brand change in the history of the company.”

“No other change in Subway history has introduced this many upgrades in such a short period and truly improved across every aspect of the brand,” Haynes said. 

Subway, which has been actively seeking a buyer since the start of the year, said its invested $80 million over two years to install the new meat slicers free of charge to franchisees. The move has allowed the sub giant to undertake the first major menu refresh in its franchising history with freshly sliced turkey, pepperoni, roast beef, ham and salami. 

Although cheese, steak and rotisserie chicken will still be delivered pre-sliced to stores, this week’s announcement represents a major shift from Subway’s previous method of slicing meat at its factories and delivering it to stores. 

Subway also added four deli subs to the menu—the Titan Turkey, Grand Slam Ham, Garlic Roast Beef and The Beast—in a category Subway calls Deli Heroes. Subway claims the Titan Turkey and Grand Slam Ham feature 33 percent more meat than its traditional subs, and The Beast boasts a half pound of meat. 

To help promote the new meat slicers and new menu items, Subway is offering up to 1 million free 6-inch Deli Heroes subs at participating restaurants on Tuesday, July 11, between 10 a.m. and noon local time.  

“Our franchisees were nervous of the change at first, but after trying the new equipment, seeing how easy it is to operate and hearing positive feedback from guests, franchisees have been eager to get slicers installed,” Haynes said.

Haynes said the installation of the 20,000 meat slicers, which the company said will be completed by mid-month, and bringing freshly sliced meats to the Subway restaurants, “was the natural next step in our transformation.”

“Since we’ve started this journey to improve the Subway brand two years ago, we’ve hit record sales numbers, reached our highest AUV since 2010 and seen an increase in overall traffic, with no signs of slowing down,” said Haynes, whose company reported a 12.1 percent year-over year increase in same-store sales globally in Q1 2023. The growth rate was just slightly smaller in North America, at 11.7 percent, according to a Subway press release.

Subway’s transformation of its in-restaurant and online guest experience continues alongside its menu and equipment updates. The world’s largest restaurant brand, which has lost significant market share to smaller sandwich competitors Jersey Mike’s Subs, Jimmy John’s and Firehouse Subs, said more than 10,000 restaurants across North America have been updated with a fresh look and feel, as it continues to roll out enhancements to its digital experience to make online ordering easier and faster.

The Miami-based sandwich giant (it opened a new global headquarters this year) has nearly 37,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries even after closing about 7,000 shops since its peak in 2015 and shedding 2.7 percent of its shops in the United States in 2022. It continues to bring more large-scale operators into the franchise system in a move clearly designed to strengthen its position for a potential sale.

Subway recently announced deals with five multi-unit franchising groups in Texas, Florida, Arizona and the mid-Atlantic states that have so far consolidated or acquired 230 restaurants.

Founded by the late Fred DeLuca and Dr. Peter Buck in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Subway has been privately owned since its beginnings in 1965. Its U.S. footprint fell to 21,147 outlets in 2021, down 22 percent from its peak of 27,103 in 2015, according to franchise disclosure documents.