Restaurant chain Subway is laying off around 300 people at its global headquarters in Milford, company officials confirmed Wednesday, the latest in a series of shakeups to hit the sandwich franchise.
In a statement, Alan Marcus, Subway’s director of public relations, said the cuts, while regrettable, will make it easier for the company to focus on supporting its vast network of franchisees.
“A reduction in workforce is never an easy decision but streamlining and simplifying our business with a smaller and nimbler workforce will help us react quickly to the changing needs of the business,” Marcus said.
About 1,000 people work at the Subway headquarters in Milford.
There were anecdotal reports on social media that police officers were in the lobby of the building on Wednesday to provide extra security as the layoffs were announced, but a company spokesman could not be reached for comment.
It was not clear this morning if the affected employees will leave work immediately or remain in their positions for a set period of time before departing.
Subway has approximately 40,000 locations in over 100 countries. About 24,300 of those stores are in the U.S.
One of Connecticut’s best-known homegrown businesses, Subway got its start in 1965, when co-founders Frederick DeLuca and Peter Buck opened Pete’s Super Submarines in Bridgeport. The following year, they formed a parent company, Doctor’s Associates Inc. — named for DeLuca’s goal of bringing in enough money to pay tuition for medical school — to oversee franchising opportunities.
The company was renamed Subway in 1968.
An ostensibly healthier alternative to fast food giants such as McDonald’s and Burger King, the chain underwent a dramatic expansion between the 1980s and 2010s, as shops cropped up in foreign markets such as Bahrain, India, Israel, and the United Kingdom. In 2004, it struck a pivotal deal with Walmart to open up counters inside the retailer’s newly launched Supercenters.
By 2015, however, sales had begun to stall, and analysts suggested that Subway had overextended itself in the face of competition from a new wave of “fast casual” restaurants, such as Chipotle Mexican Grill and Panera Bread. The brand was also tarnished by the arrest and conviction of its well-known pitchman, Jared Fogle, on child sex charges, and the discontinuation of its $5 foot-long promotion, which, while extremely popular, was cutting into franchise profits.
In November, former Burger King chief John Chidsey was named CEO in hopes of improving the chain’s fortunes. But some of Chidsey’s reforms, including plans to wrest control of the company’s marketing budget from regional partners, have proven deeply unpopular within the corporate rank-and-file, and several high-level executives have resigned over the past three months.
Similar to other major U.S. fast food chains, Subway’s restaurants are operated by local franchisees. A number of entities under the Subway Group umbrella, including Doctor’s Associates, Franchise World Headquarters LLC, FWH Technologies, and Subway IP Inc., own and control franchise rights, intellectual property, point of sale software, and other facets of the business.
Aside from its world headquarters in Milford, the company operates regional centers in Miami, Florida; Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Beirut, Lebanon; Brisbane, Australia; and Singapore.