Franchising is a simple, but effective way of expanding rapidly, however, as Fred DeLuca discovered it takes time and a great deal of hard work to establish your company’s name and reputation. It took Free DeLuca nine years before he felt the time was right to open the first franchised Subway sandwich shop ... and it wasn’t on the other side of the globe, but just a 40 minute drive from Fred’s first shop. It wasn’t unit 1984, almost 20 years after going into business, that the first Subway franchise opened abroad – and not in Canada, Mexico or Europe as you might expect, but Bahrain.