Just a little greater than a 12 months after shopping for Subway eating places for a reported $9.55 billion, the non-public fairness agency Roark Capital closed its $1 billion buy of Dave’s Sizzling Hen on June 2. The offers went by means of regardless of opposition from critics who contended that including restaurant chains, notably Subway, to Roark’s roster would consolidate an excessive amount of of the sandwich market below one proprietor.
Subway introduced the shut of the sale April 30, 2024. It adopted a Federal Commerce Fee evaluation into whether or not the sale of the Subway sandwich chain ought to go ahead. As a result of Roark owns a bunch of different restaurant operators and franchises (together with Subway rival Jimmy John’s), opponents lobbied the FTC to dam the deal.
Regardless of the Subway buy and the opposition that originally met the acquisition, Roark has not misplaced its urge for food for buying eating places. In early 2025, Roark Capital moved so as to add to its restaurant secure by signing a deal to accumulate Dave’s Sizzling Hen for roughly $1 billion, sources aware of the matter advised Reuters.
In saying the shut of its personal sale to Roark, Subway stated the acquisition got here on the heels of three years of gross sales progress and constructive world internet restaurant progress for the primary time since 2016. That stated, the chain did shut greater than 600 home shops in 2024, dropping beneath 20,000 Subway shops in the US for the primary time in 20 years, in accordance with Restaurant Enterprise, citing the corporate’s franchise disclosure paperwork.
What’s the Common Revenue of a Subway Restaurant Franchise Proprietor?
Roark pays about $9.6 billion for the sandwich chain, in accordance with phrases of the deal introduced late final summer time. Subway’s household homeowners had been hoping to fetch $10 billion after they put the corporate up on the market in February 2023.
Over the past 12 months, Subway has chased gross sales progress partly by including new menu objects. Within the final a number of months, the chain has launched Subway Sidekicks, a brand new menu class, and a contemporary lineup of signature wraps, served on a brand new lavash-style flatbread.
One other change the chain made was to require that every one franchises settle for digital coupons.
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The Subway Sidekicks product is a set of three snacks. The three new footlong snacks are a Subway chocolate chip cookie formed into an extended strip and sufficiently big for 4 folks, in addition to footlong churros and pretzels.
The wraps are impressed by Center Jap delicacies, Subway stated, and are served on lavash-style flatbread. The sandwich holds extra elements than a wheat tortilla, giving Subway’s new wraps a footlong protein portion in a six-inch dimension, the chain stated.
Roark’s bid to accumulate Subway adopted a rebound that noticed Subway’s gross sales climb in 2022 and early 2023.
Credit score for the turnaround goes partly to new advertising and marketing campaigns, together with a latest, zany, “wait a minute, they did what?” marketing campaign.
Subway’s summer time promotion asking superfans to point out their tremendous fandom went so nicely that 10,000 folks had moved to vary their names legally to “Subway” in trade for sandwiches for all times.
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The “Subway” identify promotion is in step with the newest installment in what Subway calls its “multiyear transformation journey.” The corporate, which stays one of many world’s largest chain restaurant operations regardless of closing 1000’s of shops lately, is below strain to enhance the underside line each for itself and its particular person franchise homeowners.
“This replace is Subway’s most advanced, investing greater than $80 million to carry deli meat slicers to greater than 20,000 U.S. eating places and putting in a slicer each 5 minutes over the course of 9 months to prepare for this summer time’s debut,” Subway stated in a information launch. “To showcase its new freshly sliced meats, Subway’s culinary crew spent over a 12 months crafting the recipes for its Deli Hero subs.”
Subway will choose one winner at random from these almost 10,000 individuals who vowed to undertake “Subway” as their first identify. The winner can even get cash to cowl authorized charges to finish the identify change.
Subway is likely one of the largest restaurant chains on the earth.
In an in-depth take a look at Subway and at how a lot a median Subway franchise proprietor makes, StartupNation discovered these key factors:
- Preliminary funding in a Subway franchise is commonly decrease than outlays for different franchises: Anticipate a franchise charge of $15,000 plus an estimated $207,000 to $477,000 to spend money on a retailer, in accordance with Subway’s estimates.
- Success relies upon not simply on whole gross sales, which will be affected by location, competitors and different elements, but additionally on how nicely franchise homeowners handle labor, meals and different prices.
- The good thing about Subway is just not in proudly owning a Subway franchise a lot as proudly owning a number of Subway franchises, in accordance with a number of Subway franchise homeowners who posted about their expertise on the StartupNation group discussion board. Posters say that multi-unit homeowners get probably the most out of the expertise.
In early 2023, Subway confirmed it had employed JPMorgan to discover a attainable sale of the corporate. Coming off a powerful 2022 that noticed its same-store gross sales climb 9.2%, Subway stated its technique was paying off.
This text was up to date in June 2025.
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