Company profile
- Industry
- Fast food restaurant chain
- Founded
- 1965
- Ownership
- Acquired by Roark Capital in 2024
Profiles are auto-generated and infrequently updated.
The analyses
The Asset-Light Trap · Business Model
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 Fall · Decision Forks
Subway Shed 8,345 U.S. Stores — The Killer Was the Profit Each Store Actually Made
Everyone blames Jared Fogle and the $5 Footlong. But Subway's same-store sales were already falling in 2012, and it has shed 8,345 U.S. stores since 2016. The real killer was a number nobody put on the dashboard: how much money each store actually made.
8 min
The Asset-Light Model · Business Model
Subway Built the Asset-Light Machine. The Franchisees Were the Asset.
Subway charges the highest combined fee rate in fast food and grants zero territory protection. The result: 10 straight years of net closures and 8,345 lost U.S. stores since 2016 — even as corporate net income hit $688 million.
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