Article contained within: News, Subway Celerates 1,000th Store Opening
Subway Celerates 1,000th Store Opening
The SUBWAY chain, the world’s largest submarine sandwich franchise, has opened its 1,000th UK and Ireland store. The rapid expansion of the SUBWAY chain is set to continue with a further 300+ franchises currently sold and therefore that number of stores waiting to be developed.
The chain has doubled its number of stores in the last two years and is still hungry for more with plans to open another 1,000 stores by 2010 – taking the total jobs creation to over 30,000 and seeing a total investment of over £200m.
The chain, which already has more stores than KFC, Pizza Hut and Burger King, is currently opening an average of six stores a week. It is anticipated that the chain will overtake McDonald’s in terms of store count by mid 2008.
Kevin Graham, Regional Director for Europe, Israel and South Africa, comments: “The level of growth we’ve experienced in the UK and Ireland is a fantastic achievement. It reflects the entrepreneurial spirit of the Development Agents and franchisees, together with the power of the SUBWAY brand and the strength of its systems, policies and procedures.”
Three stores opened up on the same day to take the SUBWAY chain to the 1000th store mark. The three stores are in: Southend-on-Sea, Essex – opened by franchisee Simon Fawkes; Donegal, Republic of Ireland - opened by franchisee Damian McColgan; and Stalybridge, Greater Manchester - opened by Phillip Hartley and Mark France.
One of the key reasons behind the SUBWAY chain’s success is the support network and robust processes available to franchisees. Developers and business consultants assist and mentor franchisees with site selection, leasing, design, construction, hands-on training, purchasing, operations, advertising, local store marketing and more. The support available to all franchisees has proved to be very successful with many franchisees investing in more than one franchise and becoming multi-store owners.
The SUBWAY chain is proud of the fact that over 70% of all new SUBWAY franchises sold worldwide are sold to existing owners. The chain has also been named the number one franchise opportunity by Entrepreneur Magazine 15 times in the past 20 years.
Start-up costs are exceptionally low for a franchise of the SUBWAY® chain's size and stature and franchisees can benefit from the purchasing power of a large chain. In fact, in some cases, traditional SUBWAY outlets can be opened for as little as c. £100,000.
The SUBWAY chain’s flexibility and adaptable approach to the physical layout of its outlets has enabled it to open in a wide range of locations including large shopping centres, smaller town centres, retail parks, universities and convenience stores. With no need for grills and fryers, a SUBWAY franchise is able to open in many properties where other food operators are not able to operate.
The SUBWAY chain’s popularity amongst consumers has seen sales of Subs continue to rise. If all the Subs that were bought in the UK and Ireland in the last year were laid down they would reach from the UK to Australia!
One of the SUBWAY chain’s key product advantages is that its Subs are made fresh in front of the customer, exactly the way they want it. It also bakes its bread fresh throughout the day and one 6” Sub with all the vegetables provides customers with one of their recommended ‘5 A Day’. The SUBWAY chain’s ‘Under 6g of Fat’ range means that customers can have a lower fat, lower calorie Sub that still tastes great.
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