Company profile
- Industry
- Fast food restaurant chain
- Founded
- 1965
- Ownership
- Acquired by Roark Capital in 2024
Profiles are auto-generated and infrequently updated.
Decisions on record
One verified Decision Case on Subway, and the casebook each one belongs to.
| Fork date | Decision type | What Subway chose | Where it stood | The story | Casebook |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Founder Doctrine | Sell to private equity | net income leapt to $689 million in the post-Roark filing (2025) | Read the story → | Founder Doctrine Casebook → |
Run one of these yourself
The decisions Subway faced, as kits you can run.
Each pack takes one of these decisions and gives you the framework, a deck for the room, a model that resolves to one number, and the sourced cases behind it. $499, one-time.
The analyses
The Asset-Light Trap · Boundaries of the Firm
Subway Built 27,000 Stores by Selling Franchises. The Stores Were the Product.
Subway peaked at 27,000 U.S. stores in 2015 and has shed 8,345 since 2016 — a 10th straight year of decline. The corporate profit is soaring anyway, because the new owner found a way to make money even as franchisees fail.
8 min
The Founder Doctrine · People & Control
Subway Stayed Private for 60 Years. Then Estate Math Did What Strategy Never Would.
Subway's two founders held it 50/50 and swore off Wall Street for six decades. In 2024 it sold to private equity for $9.6 billion - not because the doctrine failed, but because a split estate has nowhere to go but the exit.
7 min
Tools to try
- Ansoff move finderFramework: Ansoff Matrix
- Business model canvas builderFramework: Business Model Canvas
- Change readiness checkFramework: Kotter's 8-Step Change Model
- Five Forces scorerFramework: Porter's Five Forces
- SMART goal builderFramework: SMART Goals
- SWOT builderFramework: SWOT Analysis
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The defining moves in business, and what they teach, as they publish.