The history of SUBWAY® restaurants
In 1965, Fred Deluca had just graduated from high school in Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA. Like many young adults his age, he had dreams of attending college.
Fred decided to ask Dr. Peter Buck, an old family friend, for some advice. Dr. Buck gave Fred an idea that would change his life and the lives of people around the world.
“I think you should open a submarine sandwich shop,” said Dr. Buck.
That night, Fred and Dr. Buck formed a partnership that would lead to the first SUBWAY® restaurant.
By lunchtime on the first day Fred and Pete’s submarine shop was open, customers were pouring in. From that day on the company continued to grow.
As Fred and Pete looked for ways to grow the business, they decided franchising was the key to achieving their goal. So Fred met with his friend Brian Dixon and offered Brian a loan to buy one of their restaurants; to sweeten the deal, Fred told Brian that if he didn’t like the business, he could return it and owe nothing.
Brian is known as the very first SUBWAY® franchisee – setting the new standard for the SUBWAY® business model. This enabled Pete and Fred to not only reach their goal, but surpass it. Today SUBWAY® restaurants are the world’s largest submarine sandwich chain operating more units in the US, Canada and Australia than McDonald’s does.
The history of SUBWAY® restaurants in New Zealand
Mark Rutherglen brought the SUBWAY® restaurants brand to NZ in 1994 after seeing potential and opportunity within the fast food industry for great tasting, healthy food.
After a year of planning and organizing all the supply and distribution, he opened his first store in Parnell in December 1995. This momentous occasion was attended by Fred DeLuca, the owner of SUBWAY® restaurants, and his wife Liz.
From there onwards, a lot of hard work was put into promoting the brand to other local Kiwis and slowly but steadily growing the numbers one by one. Along with the hard work of a fantastic group of dedicated Kiwi franchisees, SUBWAY® restaurants took off in 2000-2001 and has never looked back.
New Zealand now boasts over 250 stores throughout the country, and SUBWAY® restaurants has become a very popular and well respected brand offering high quality product and great service and providing Kiwis with a fresh, fun and healthy choice.
SUBWAY® restaurants also launched the School Lunches Programme, offering young Kiwis fresh, tasty and nutritious everyday choices. This programme is now in place in well over 100 schools throughout New Zealand.
SUBWAY® restaurants continue to grow, and is now a major part of Kiwi culture serving happy and healthy Kiwis from Cape Reinga to Tiwai Point.
