Subway’s year exemplifies several restaurant industry trends from 2014. Technomic has repeated the first point in several venues: Bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better, as established and legacy brands lost share to emerging chains, especially fast-casual ones. But fast casual growing at the expense of quick-service giants has been happening for years, and that’s not all that’s going on in the Subway story. It also brought the rise of QSR Plus into focus.
By Technomic’s estimates, Subway grew its unit count 2.9% in 2014, but even as franchisees continue to open stores, the chain’s average unit volume continues to drop. In 2014, that metric declined 3.1% to an estimated $475,000.