Subway has announced “really bold changes” to its existing menu in a bid to recapture consumer appetites, including “Eat Fresh Refresh,” its largest menu update in its 50-plus year history, available in all U.S. locations on July 13th. The company embarked on creating the new bread options back in January 2019 and had them ready to go for summer 2020, but “couldn’t launch it in the middle of the pandemic,” according to Trevor Haynes, Subway’s President of North America.
In order to best prepare this new lineup, more than 10,000 restaurants will close on July 12th at 6:00 PM Eastern to give the local staff time to prepare.
The revamp includes more than 20 menu updates, with 11 new and improved ingredients, six new and returning sandwiches, and four signature sandwiches — including two more bread options, Artisan Italian and Hearty Multigrain. Haynes says this revamp is “really focused” on ensuring that the menu is “contemporary” with options to mix and match for every guests’ unique palette. The brand wants to ensure that it continues to evolve with changing tastes, and provide a continuously “better experience for the guests” with both new favorites and old classics.
New menu items include deli-thin sliced ham and turkey, BelGioioso mozzarella, hickory smoked-bacon, smashed avocado with sea salt, and MVP Parmesan Vinaigrette. Sandwiches that will be added include the Turkey Cali Fresh, Steak Cali Fresh and an All-American Club. One menu item that won’t change, however, is its embattled tuna, which is currently the subject of a California lawsuit that Subway has blasted as “baseless.” Meanwhile, a New York Times analysis in June added fuel to the fire after a lab report commissioned by the paper found “no amplifiable tuna DNA” present in a sample.
Subway, however, doubled down on its position, with Haynes insisting the customer favorite “is nothing but 100% wild-caught tuna.” At the restaurants, mayonnaise is added when prepared. Haynes said the Subway team agreed “our tuna doesn’t need to be touched, our guests love our tuna, it’s a product that we are proud to serve in restaurants.” As part of Eat Fresh Refresh, the team will include messaging about proud it is of its tuna product, and emphasize that there is “nothing to hide.”
Alongside the revamped menu, Subway is revamping its app to offer indoor pickup, curbside pickup or home delivery through third party delivery platform DoorDash. The sprawling chain has a Subway restaurant within five miles of 92 percent of the U.S. population. “This is what the consumer is looking for, our guests are looking for hyper accessibility to brands,” Haynes told Yahoo Finance. This ongoing effort to help franchisees tend to their customers’ wants is “aggressively rolling out” across the U.S., adding “thousands” of restaurants every couple of days.
During COVID he says franchisees were creating their own curbside pickup options with personalized banner signs outside their restaurants. By the end of year, there should be approximately 7,000 restaurants participating in this new digital ordering experience.
As of now this refresh is only occurring in U.S. locations but may set a trend for the brand globally. “We are currently focused on the U.S. rollout, but as we collect feedback from new and loyal Subway fans alike, we will be staying close with leadership teams around the globe to share our learnings as they consider their own menu refreshes,” stated a Subway spokesperson.
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