CNN Business – After years of declining sales, Subway is hoping to reintroduce itself to customers and convince them to give its sandwiches a shot.
Next week, Subway restaurants across the country will unveil an updated menu designed to improve items across the board. The chain says the move is the biggest menu change in its history.
The revamp includes new recipes for the chain’s Italian and multigrain breads, as well as new sandwich toppings.
The chain is also tweaking items already on the menu. Subway’s bacon, for example, will now be hickory-smoked, and its turkey and ham sliced more thinly. It’s also bringing back past items like rotisserie-style chicken and roast beef.
To encourage customers to try the new ingredients, thousands of restaurants plan to give away up to one million free sandwiches between 10 AM and 12 PM on July 13. The chain is also updating the look of its app and partnering with DoorDash to let customers order delivery directly from the Subway app.
Some shoppers once considered Subway to be an affordable, relatively healthy option — they could load their sandwiches with their preferred mix of veggies and protein without breaking the bank. But in recent years, competition in the fast casual space has helped edge Subway out.
“We want to make a loud enough bang … to draw those people back to give us another look,” Subway CEO John Chidsey told CNN Business.
With the new menu, Subway is courting those customers and hoping to please its franchise operators.
Bringing customers back
Subway is rolling out new and updated ingredients.
According to the foodservice research and consultant firm Technomic, sales at Subway’s US locations have been falling in recent years.
System-wide sales at Subway’s US locations were $12.3 billion in 2013, which was its best year of the past 15, and about $8.3 billion in 2020, according to Technomic’s analysis … Click here to read more.
