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How Subway's $5 Footlong Became An Accidental Bonanza

Business Week, Tuesday, November 10, 2009 10:40 AM

Matthew Boyle weaves the tale of Stuart Frankel, a transplanted New Yorker who began selling foot-long subs for $5 in his two Miami Subway franchises on weekends and evidently turned around the company's fortunes in the process. Subway sold $3.8 billion worth of footlongs in the year ending in August, making it one of the top 10 fast-food brands in the U.S, according to NPD Group.

"There are only a few times when a chain has been able to scramble up the whole industry, and this is one of them," says Jeffrey T. Davis, president of restaurant consultancy Sandelman & Associates. "It's huge."

Boyle's story is all about how a corporate giant can seize on a good idea that's not generated at headquarters and make it a system-wide success even though, as marketing chief Jeff Moody puts it, "it violated all our normal processes." It's a good read.

Read the whole story at Business Week »

qsr, strategy

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