Subway is making major changes with its Subway Series menu upgrade adding 12 new signature subs to its menu, the chain’s biggest menu change in almost 60 years. Subway President Trevor Haynes joined Cheddar News to talk about Inflation, supply chain, and its monumental menu change. "We've been around for many, many years, 50 plus years," he said. "We've seen the ups and downs … we've ridden through sort of inflationary periods and recession periods, and we think we're very well positioned to go through into the next coming months with whatever pressure that may prevail on the industry."

Closing Bell

Subway Makes Biggest Sandwich Menu Change in Six Decades

closing bell here on cheddar news. Now sandwich chain Subway is undergoing major refreshes according to execs. What the company making its biggest menu change in decades? The revamped comes as Subway like most competitors is dealing with rising costs, supply chain issues and staffing problems. So joining us now is Trevor Hayes, president of Subway North America and Trevor tell us about the big changes that are coming and why you feel you need to do them now. Hey, so great. Great question. Good afternoon. Big changes in the subway series launch. It's here we launched yesterday with our media kick off. It's a new way to subway. We have 12 your delicious chef inspired subs and when you come into a subway with the the new subway series you'll order by number or by name. So my favorite favorite, the number eight, the great garlic. That's what you say to the sandwich artist will have the number eight, they make it for you of course you can still customize if you would like. But we're super excited by these credible delicious builds and just how our team has got right behind this new way to Subway and how it's kicked off for us. So yeah, a lot more to come with this but very excited by what we've seen in the 1st 1st week or so of the soft launch and then into the media launch yesterday, Subway has always been one of the leaders in marketing. I mean when you think Subway, you think like $5 foot long but $5 foot long may not be as attainable nowadays with rising prices. So how are you avoiding passing those? Perhaps rising prices to the customers? Yeah, great question. I mean Subways been always seen as an affordable brand from the amount the quantity of food that we offer, the quality of the food and the price points that we have in our restaurants were very accessible brand. Um and we've got something when you look at a price point where there were six inch or foot long really something for everyone. So we're constantly focused on how we unlock value and affordability for our guests and Balance that with profitability for our franchisees were very closely with our supply chain, constantly monitoring what turns out supply pressures and flow of goods into the system. But from a from a guest perspective, 12 Great Sandwiches, delicious builds new way to order and as I said, we still have those great affordable prices that everyone knows that subway has developed over the years. We've been around for many, many years, 50 plus years, we've seen the ups and downs and it's been at something that subway, you know, we've we've we've written through sort of inflationary periods and recession periods and we think we're very well positioned to go through into the next coming months with whatever pressure that may prevail on the industry. I was gonna ask because somebody also is always introducing new flavors, new combinations. But when it comes to these prices, do you avoid any ingredients when you revamp your products or perhaps do you lean into an ingredient that has dropped in price? You know, that's a really good question. I mean, we have a really, we have a vast buying. Um you know, when you look at our supply chain, it's vast. It's actually the scale is enormous, so that we're very competitive in terms of the ingredients that we purchased from a quality and pricing perspective. But our journey on this whole big refresh Subway series launch Really started 18 plus months ago from bread, protein sources, cheese, etcetera. As we introduce those into the system last summer summer, we then look at how do we upgrade and really focus on the crave a ble bills for this summer's launch. So a number of factors played into the bills, primarily. 1st, 1st of the key ingredients is making sure we've got great credible sandwiches that the guests will love. That's a key part of our focus. Now, you also operate through a franchise model. What's the state of business today and how our franchisees handling these current economic conditions. Yeah, great question. We work very closely with our franchisees and as I said, from the supply chain, through to the pricing guidance that we give our franchisees for each and every restaurant. So we really try to work very closely with them as to how they can adjust their menu pricing where it makes sense to maybe move pricing from one point to the next over time. That that's the nature of retail, that's something you need to do. But you know that's how we've been working with our franchisees to help them grow their top line sales and also grow restaurant level profitability. Now, talking about ingredients again, if incorporated things like the Beyond meatball sub into the menu, do you see plant based meat taking up a bigger chunk of your menu in the future? Yes. So we've tested that and it tested fine. Um there may be a position for that in the future but right now that's not one of the lineup that we've we've launched with really we tested out these 12 sandwiches. We found that consumers really responded so positively to them. There's a state collection, Chicken collection, Italian collection etc that folks really responded to and told us that they love. So that's what we've lent into with this new new Subway series launch Now when it comes to the pandemic and some habits that cause consumers created over that time, a lot of folks looking online using apps, how has your online presence and perhaps your online ordering, ordering or experience changed in the past two years? Yeah. Great question again. We saw absolutely an uptick in online online retail for the subway system. You know, in terms of whether it be pick up or delivery orders, whether it be via our own channels or through third party aggregators. We've seen that that movement right across the U. S. And Canadian business for north America and you know it's here to stay focus looking for convenience. Whether it be I order online, I walk into the restaurant and I pick it up or I have it delivered to my house or wherever I may be at that point in time. So certainly has sped up the adoption of um you know the online digital experience now when it comes to online, a lot of these restaurants are also looking to the metaverse and N. F. T. S. Is that something that Subway might be looking to in the future? May we might but that's not our focus at this point in time. But I know our team does talk about that from from from time to time. God is looking to the future as well as customers needs change as we've seen, will we see any changes to how and where your food is sold? Yeah, great question. You know, I've spoken about this previously not on your program, but we're testing various ways of bringing our food to the consumer and trying to look at really creative ways of how we can make sure that it's fit for purpose and it really really does address the needs of the consumers are looking for in terms of making the food more accessible and in real time. So right now we're testing in a couple of airport locations across the U. S. And in Canada some Subway vending machines where you can actually go in and choose a sub from the vending machine? They're refreshed several times throughout the day. But we've seen really promising uptake with that particular move forward or that particular channel. I'm not saying we're going to do this everywhere but it's certainly an option that we're looking at. Now. Subway has always been one of those franchises that has introduced huge names when it comes to celebrity endorsements. Are there any big names that perhaps are coming down the road they could share with us today? I won't talk about the future but you saw who were with us last year and we've got an all star lineup this year with Charles, Barkley et cetera in the tv spots. So it's it's been great to see the level the level of talent like Steph, curry, tom brady et cetera that really have just come to Subway and saying we want to work with this brand, this brand is really going places and we're super excited to be part of it. And you know I think when you look at the media launch with Subway series you'll see some of the great talent that's joined us for that, you know such as simone biles etcetera. So when it comes to this menu refresh, when consumers walk into your locations they're gonna be ordering by number as well as the sandwich name. What kind of problem are we trying to solve with this new refresh. Yeah good question. You can say number on the name. So number eight I'll have the number eight will have the great garlic. So what we want to do here is just make it easier for the, for the consumer. So they can choose a number if they want to take onions off. Of course they can. But just then they just don't have to, they can say I want the white bread and and that's all in terms of the interaction, they can go back to doing what they may have been doing, texting their friends or etcetera on the phone and for our sandwich artist it means they don't have to ask all the questions and they can just focus on making that great sandwich. So it really does take some of the repetitive, it's out of the questions in the traditional guest experience that we've had. Although you can still go through that way and it really just helps us to speed up the line and and service. But What we found from all the testing we did with our franchisees and they gave us phenomenal feedback. This is something that the guests really respond to positively as we roll this out in test markets and we're seeing it now as we've gone live right across the US market over 20,000 plus locations. All right. Trevor Haines not telling us what the big stars that are coming our way. But the big changes will take President of Subway North. America. Trevor thank you so much for being with us.