Subway, the world’s largest sandwich franchise, has opened its 2,000 store in its UK and Ireland region at Hemel Hempstead.
The store is the 12th for multi-unit franchisee, Christopher Seymour, who has spent his entire career with the company and is continuing to expand with a further three units already in the pipeline for this year.
Worldwide over 70 per cent of Subway’s new stores are now being opened by existing franchisees. This testifies to the popularity of the brand and system and the support it provides for franchisees.
The UK region is Subway’s third largest market behind the U.S. and Canada. The chain has 4,500 stores in Europe and 43,000 in 105 countries. Based in Connecticut, it was founded in 1965 by Fred DeLuca and an investor.
Announcing the UK’s 2000th store, Greg Madigan, the region’s area development manager, reported that there was a strong pipeline of further stores opening this year in a variety of locations from traditional high streets to non-traditional sites.
Subway is unusual in that it operates through development agents, who, similarly to regional master franchisees, assist and mentor their franchisees with site selection, leasing, design, construction, hands-on training, purchasing power, operations, advertising and local marketing.
In addition to conventional sites, the region has 430 stores in non-traditional locations, such as forecourts, convenience stores, universities and hospitals. It works with firms that include Welcome Break, Euro Garages, Applegreen and Sodexo.
The company supports the Government’s public health responsibility policy and points out that it endorses all its eight nutrition-related pledges. It claims that the region’s franchisees have invested £200m in their stores and provide 20,000 jobs.