Pursuits
Subway’s Growth Era Fades as New Competitors Hobble Expansion
An employee prepares a sandwich inside a Subway restaurant.
Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
After years of explosive growth turned it into the world’s largest restaurant chain by number of locations, Subway Restaurants is in retreat.
The sandwich seller is adding fewer new locations, and U.S. revenue fell 2.7 percent to $1.16 billion last year, according to a franchisee document that parent company Doctor’s Associates Inc. filed with the state of Minnesota in April. The company’s cash balance also shrank, dropping by nearly half to $10.9 million as of Dec. 31.