As he discussed the latest equipment addition to Subway’s restaurants, meat slicers, Trevor Haynes, the chain’s president of North America pointed to the back of the test kitchen at its Miami headquarters to the brand’s toaster. Nearly two decades ago, Subway added toasters to its restaurants, perhaps the biggest change in the chain’s history.
“We had to train every franchisee on how to use that piece of equipment,” he said. “That is a more complex piece of equipment than this is.”
That isn’t to say that the chain’s addition of slicers to its restaurants isn’t a big deal. The chain has spent the past several months adding $80 million worth of them into its more than 20,000 U.S. restaurants, at points adding a slicer to a restaurant every five minutes. That effort is expected to be complete this week.
And in the process, Subway is unleashing its third major menu change in as many years. That effort, which the company calls “Subway 3.0,” includes those slicers and a line of “Deli Heroes” subs designed to highlight the fact that it is slicing its meat onsite.
The subs include the Titan Turkey and the Grand Slam Ham, each of which features double the provolone cheese and 33% more meat. The Garlic Roast Beef features double the provolone, roast beef and a roasted garlic aioli. Then there is the Beast, which includes pepperoni, salami, turkey, ham, roast beef and double the cheese. “That surprised us in test,” Haynes said. “It does really well. There is a lot of value in that.”
The company plans to introduce these sandwiches to the public between 10 a.m. and noon on Tuesday by giving away 1 million, six-inch Deli Heroes subs.
Subway has added slicers to most of its 21,000 restaurants. | Photo courtesy of Subway.
Subway began its menu overhaul in 2021 with what it called its “Eat Fresh Refresh,” a massive upgrade to its ingredients, including its method for baking bread. Backed by ads featuring sports stars such as Steph Curry and Tom Brady, the effort was designed to help improve the brand’s reputation. The company continued that effort last year with the addition of the “Subway Series,” a line of a dozen subs designed for customers to order as-is without heavy customization.
The slicers are the third iteration. “1.0 we improved the menu, with 2.0 we brought in craveability with the Subway Series, and 3.0 features freshly sliced meats and classic deli sandwiches,” Haynes said.
The effort appears to be working. Subway has said its same-store sales have been strong since its initial menu overhaul. Average unit volumes are up about 10% compared with 2019, reaching $466,000 last year, from $420,000 in 2019, according to data from Restaurant Business sister company Technomic. The improvement comes as the brand has put itself on the market, with a sale expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
Subway’s weakness in recent years, including several straight years of declining unit volumes and more than 6,000 store closures in the U.S., has energized smaller competitors such as Jersey Mike’s, whose system sales has more than doubled over the past five years.
Haynes stresses that the slicers are not meant to be a “Jersey Mike’s killer,” the way its toasters 20 years ago helped bring about the downfall of another fast-growing rival in Quiznos. For one thing, the company has no plans to slice meat in front of customers.
“We wouldn’t slice to order,” he said. “It’s slow. It would slow everything down dramatically.” Rather, restaurants are slicing in batches, in the morning, after lunch or in the evening.
Much of that will be done in front of customers, however. Eighty percent of the slicers are in customer view. The other locations do not have the facilities to allow that.
The slicers are designed to give the company and its customers a sense of quality while, hopefully, lowering food costs.
Buying pre-sliced meat is more expensive because vendors slice the meat themselves. Haynes expects this will ultimately lower food costs as a result. “Eventually, there should be significant savings,” Haynes said. “Franchisees should see some savings, depending on inflation.”
But he also said that it should not increase labor costs by slicing in-house because the company is already prepping its food, anyway, and the slicers are simple.
The devices have been added to the restaurants over the past several months, with different markets starting on different types of meat. One might slice turkey, for instance, the other ham.
As for Subway’s menu overhaul, executives hinted they are still not done. “I think there is a 4.0 and maybe a 5.0,” Haynes said, noting that “there’s a number of things we’re working on.”
But, given the chain’s size, those efforts take time. “We can’t just come up with something on a Monday and roll it out on Friday,” Haynes said. “Our bread took 18 months to change.”
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