New York
CNN
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Six months into Subway changing its pre-sliced meats with freshly sliced servings, one of many chain’s largest franchisee teams says that gross sales are duller than anticipated.
Final yr, Subway paid to put in $6,000 slicers on the chain’s 20,000 US places in response to its rivals serving freshly sliced meat. It was an try to ignite gross sales on the almost 60-year-old chain, which have been sagging in comparison with its fast-growing rivals.
The outcomes, to date, have been a “blended bag,” in accordance with Invoice Mathis, the chairman of the North American Affiliation of Subway Franchisees (NAASF), which represents as many as half of Subway places on the continent.
“We haven’t seen any information that claims these slicers have pushed gross sales, pushed buyer counts or profitability,” Mathis mentioned concerning the slicers on a recently released podcast for Restaurant Enterprise, a commerce publication. “The underside line right here is that no person is saying that is the best factor, if I could say, since sliced bread or since sliced meats.”
Some eating places are “battling it, however not everyone,” Mathis mentioned of the preliminary response he’s listening to from NAASF members. One difficulty is that labor has elevated, notably from usually cleansing the slicer, as a result of it “takes a little bit bit extra time to slice it than it does how we did it earlier than.”
Franchisees, to date, additionally haven’t seen the advantages of decrease meals prices. The corporate has mentioned pre-sliced meat delivered is dearer in comparison with freshly sliced meats.
Mathis mentioned the “waste issue” wasn’t accounted for from company and that he’s heard that some eating places are disposing as a lot as six ounces a day to “losing kilos in every week,” all of which add up in an trade with razor-thin margins.
In comparison with a yr in the past “we have been taking it out of packages that might come to us and the labor concerned there may be actually nothing and the waste is little to nothing actually,” he mentioned.
Freshly sliced meat was a cornerstone of Subway’s “Eat Recent, Refresh” marketing campaign that additionally contains retailer remodels, new facet dishes and a revamped menu that added new sandwiches highlighting the slicer’s capabilities.
In Mathis’ view, prospects are apathetic concerning the slicers. He mentioned there’s “no information on what the patron notion is on this or how they react to it, however simply listening to our members, it’s actually a blended bag the place some individuals actually don’t care. It actually doesn’t matter to them.”
“To some individuals saying, you already know, you’re attempting to be any person else, one other competitor, however you’re actually not there. So good strive,” he mentioned.
Subway didn’t instantly reply for remark.
The candor expressed by Mathis isn’t the primary time franchisees have expressed their frustration with Subway. Some franchise operators complained publicly concerning the firm’s therapy of them.
In 2021, an nameless group of “involved franchisees” wrote an open letter to Elisabeth DeLuca, a co-owner of the chain. The Subway dream “has become a nightmare,” they mentioned, writing that Subway damage their enterprise by franchising new places close by or shutting down shops for minor infractions, amongst different issues.
In a separate letter, they complained of excessive franchise charges. Subway’s franchise charges are “aggressive,” a former firm government beforehand instructed CNN.
Subway, a privately held firm, highlights reward from some franchisees throughout its periodic monetary releases. In 2022, a launch featured a quote from Donna Curry, a Subway franchisee that owns about 65 places.
“We’re listening to from company that they like the flexibleness of ordering by identify and quantity and are having fun with the brand new Subway Sequence sandwiches, which is mirrored within the elevated site visitors and gross sales throughout my eating places,” she mentioned concerning the firm’s optimistic quarter.
Within the podcast, Mathis mentioned there’s been “some disagreements on some issues” between NAASF and Subway, however praised different modifications carried out by CEO John Chidsey, together with its athlete-studded promoting and Subway Series menu.