Unlike some past efforts, though, Subway built everything from the core out. system-what it calls the “Eat Fresh Refresh.” Based on records they could find, Chidsey says, this was the most extensive overhaul in brand history. The company rolled more than 20 significant menu updates across its U.S. Subway’s answer is coming in stages (in a system this large you can’t do everything at once, Chidsey says), and 1.0 splashed in mid-July. A quality-forward ethos that centers on the core. Subway’s consumer data was “overwhelming,” Chidsey says, to these points and what needed to change. It’s also likely not the lone quick-serve promoting itself as a healthier alternative to the “big guys.” It’s hardly the only sub restaurant in town anymore and that includes a bevy of fast casuals. And Jimmy John’s 2,705.īeyond just a numbers game, however, it’s really consumer perception that’s caught up to Subway. footprint.Īccelerate to 2021 and Jersey Mike’s has 1,856 locations. If you added those together they represented just 16 percent of Subway’s U.S. That blip on Subway’s radar had become a flashing siren.Īt the end of 2015, there were 1,046 Jersey Mike’s in America. Subway needed to widen its lens and compete not just against other fast-food giants with scale-the McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Burger Kings of the world-but also against emerging sandwich brands. Chidsey doubled or tripled the effort, he says, and then Subway conducted more.Ĭall-outs from the brand’s analytics and insights teams sketched a clear roadmap. Research was ready for review when he showed up. Work toward the change didn’t quite begin on day one, Chidsey adds, but it wasn’t long after. “What we would all consider more of a traditional restaurant company,” he says. His goal? Evolve it into an “experience-focused organization.” It was 12,844 more than McDonald’s and 14,582 ahead of Starbucks.Īs Chidsey explains, though, it was clear Subway morphed into a development-focused restaurant company. The 2015 count was more than Burger King, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut combined. And it was steady growth to a measure few companies in retail history could rival: 816, 872, 956, 878, 778, and 145. READ MORE: Where Subway ranks on this year’s QSR 50, by sales, AUV, and moreīefore an 866-store decline from 2016–2017, Subway added 4,456 restaurants the previous six years combined. There were 23,802 stores headed into 2020 and 24,798 locations by year-end 2018. That’s 1,612 fewer than the previous year, and the continuation of a sloping trend. Subway ended 2020 with 22,201 domestic locations. It didn’t take long for Chidsey to lock in on Subway’s greatest differentiator and perhaps also its greatest challenge. They hail from Burger King parent Restaurant Brands International Dunkin’ Yum! Brands Outback owner Bloomin’. Of the top 100 employees in Subway’s leadership team, some 75 percent are new hires. He officially joined in fall 2019 and got to work. Subway needed to figure out who it wanted to be in its next act.Īnd Chidsey thought he might have an idea. Perhaps not stuck in a malaise, exactly, but it lacked direction. DeLuca, 67, battled leukemia since 2013.Ĭhidsey says Subway lost its way a bit. Just weeks after Subway’s 50th anniversary in September 2015, co-founder Fred DeLuca, who started the brand when he was 17 in 1965, passed away. The 56-year-old company, private its entire life, didn’t operate with any real sense of urgency, Chidsey says. Like Burger King, labeled by some a floundering chain before Chidsey took over in 2006 and engineered a turnaround, Subway was trudging in neutral. Yet if there’s one figure in this business that can reawaken somebody’s attention, it’s this: Some 95 percent of Americans live within a 10-minute drive of a Subway.Īnd yet the ubiquitous nature of the world’s largest restaurant chain wasn’t indicative of an opportunity that had run its course. It had been eight full years since he stepped down at the burger giant a year or so after its 2010 sale to 3G Capital. The former Burger King chairman and lead executive was content to offer advice on boards, invest, and generally not consider the idea of directing another major restaurant chain. John Chidsey had a comfortable seat on the sidelines.
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