Subway Celebrates 5,000th Global C-store Location
MILFORD, Conn. — Subway hit an international milestone with the opening of its 5,000th convenience store and truck stop location in Lima, Peru. The sandwich chain is increasingly focusing its growth on these opportunistic non-traditional locations due to flexible space requirements and adaptable floor plans, the company said.
The Subway brand now has 10,498 restaurants in non-traditional locations, nearly a quarter of its global portfolio, according to the announcement.
"The c-store and truck stop category was an immediate winner ... in that it opened the door to the first and earliest growth for us because it let us go into small towns where the real estate was a little scarce and the buildout costs were high," said Subway Chief Development Officer Don Fertman. "All along, this growth in non-traditional areas has allowed us to bring our product to where the customers are. With 25 percent of our overall growth in non-traditional locations, it shows that the non-traditional has become the traditional."
The first Subway located inside a c-store opened in 1990. Today, there are more Subway restaurants at c-stores, gas stations and truck stops than any other quick-service restaurant, the company said.
Other non-traditional Subway locations include:
- 597 colleges and universities
- 126 grocery stores
- 293 hospitals
- 263 department stores
- 1,956 Walmart locations
- 201 airports
"We are fortunate that there is a lot of flexibility and adaptability in the Subway store model, so we are able to fit in some of the more unique and unusual locations that many brands can't," said Jacqueline G. M. Jones, who owns the c-store location in Peru and serves as a developer for the brand in Latin America. "Subway has a wonderful product to offer our customers and through these non-traditional locations, we are able to reach as many customers as we can."
Subway has more than 43,800 locations in 110 countries and plans to open 2,500 new restaurants around the globe in 2015.