Subway by the Numbers: 44,000 Locations, Largest Fast Food Chain in the World

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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It is too early to say what damage Subway might face as its many-year spokesman, Jared Fogle, heads to prison. Probably not much. There has been no public analysis of Subway’s recent sales. It has diversified its spokespeople to a line of prominent athletes and celebrities, including NBA star Russell Westbrook, gymnast Nastia Liukin and NASCAR champion Carl Edwards. These people are famous enough to be brands unto themselves. This decision, and its “healthy food” menu, may make Subway nearly bulletproof.

Based on several sources, Subway has in excess of 44,000 stores. It business model is set up so that it owns none of these. Subway says that its 21,000 franchisees do. Forbes estimates Subway’s annual sales at $20 billion.

Subway’s store count puts it ahead of the 36,000 locations McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) says it has. In the case of the huge burger chain, it owns a large percentage of its stores. Based on its public filings, McDonald’s revenue per year is about $27 billion. That means McDonald’s has a higher yield per store.

McDonald’s revenue has been dropping, by as much as 10% quarter over previous quarter. In the June quarter, it dropped from $7.2 billion in the same quarter last year to $6.5 billion. Net income dropped 13% to $1.2 billion. McDonald’s market cap is $95 billion. In an IPO, Subway’s might come close to that. However, it is hard to tell whether Subway’s sales are falling as well, though USAToday argues that sales at Subway have fallen recently.

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One of Subway’s largest advantages is that it is considered a healthy food alternative to fast-food menus at McDonald’s and its chief rivals. To rekindle sales, McDonald’s management is pushing its menu in the direction of Subway’s.

Subway also has had the advantage that it is not a major target of workers seeking higher wages. Perhaps this is because it is not a public company, so labor organizers have no extensive facts on what its management makes, and worker pay figures are harder to come by since each franchisee can presumably set its own.

The level of anxiety among Subway’s management as Fogle heads to jail is probably close to zero.

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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