News

Subway has 40K locations in sight

May 22, 2013

During the first quarter of 2013, Subway opened more than 600 new locations around the world, crossing the 39,000-unit mark.

According to the company, "40,000 locations is well within our sites."

New stores accounted for approximately 720,000 square feet of occupied commercial retail space, while the chain's total international store count increased to more than 13,000 restaurants.

The U.S. saw the addition of 232 new Subway franchises, boosting total counts here to nearly 26,000. Individual milestones were witnessed in Texas, now with 2,100 stores; Florida, with 1,500 stores; New York, 1,300 stores; Missouri, with 500; and New Hampshire at 100 locations.

In Canada, 34 new locations across the country resulted in the total number of Subway restaurants to cross the 2,900 store mark, which in turn allowed the province of Quebec to achieve its own milestone of 600 locations.

Other milestones reached around the world during this time include 1,500 locations in the U.K.; 100 in Colombia; and the opening of the first Subway restaurant in Estonia.

Additionally, Subway now has more than 9,000 nontraditional locations, of which more than 160 opened during Q1 in places such as airports, department stores, hospitals and parks & recreational facilities.

The company notes one new nontraditional location as standing out; one inside a Goodwill Industries training center in South Carolina. Goodwill is the franchisee and it has been running the restaurant since 2005 as a training ground for clients in their foodservice program, which provides job skills and helps people with barriers to employment support themselves and their families, according to a news release.

"Goodwill sells Subway sandwiches and takes donated goods and resells them. With the income, Goodwill funds job training and placement programs that give South Carolinians a second chance at life. The confidence and pride I've seen in the eyes of people helped by Goodwill cannot be more gratifying," said Ali Saifi, president and CEO of Subway Development Corporation of South Carolina,

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