Top-manager of Subway: We will seek out partners for development in Ukraine. It will be later.

One of the world’s largest fast-food chains is not going to open restaurants in Ukraine in the next two years.

This was told to the RAU correspondent at the international exhibition of retail and retail real estate MAPIC-2019 by the regional director for development of Subway Sasha Stokich. “Some things must happen before we are ready to open restaurants in Ukraine. This will not happen in 2020 or 2021. We must do our domestic work to make this possible. Then we will seek out partners for development in Ukraine, because we are the franchise company and the franchise is managed by the franchise’ owners, and not by us” – top-manager of Subway said.

The company is ready to enter Ukraine only after the thorough market’ study, its features and legal nuances, according to him.

In turn, Tom Stigter, rental manager of Subway, named several key aspects that a company needs before opening establishments in the country. “We need partners in Ukraine who want to develop a franchise. We need to build logistics and supply’ chains, which takes a lot of time. And we also need products that meet our standards”, – he specified.

It should be noted that representatives of Subway avoided specifics, answering a question about the main reasons for the lack of the company’ interest in Ukraine. At the same time, one of top-managers of Subway mentioned in conversation about some “state problems”, because of which the company has not yet considered the expansion’ possibility in the country.

Recall that Subway is the world’s largest fast-food chain with about 43,000 points of sales in more than 100 countries. Most of company’s establishments are located in the United States (about 24,000). But the company is also actively developing in Europe, including in the UK (about 2500 establishments), Russia (more than 500 establishments) and France (over 400 establishments).

Subway format is significantly different from other international fast- food chains represented in Ukraine, such as McDonald’s or KFC. Typically, Subway facilities are significantly smaller and require much less investment in start-up, personnel and equipment. At the same time, low maintenance costs allow Subway establishments to remain profitable even in small towns or in locations where large restaurants’ construction does not pay off.

Franchising services for the Subway brand worldwide are provided by private company Doctor’s Associates Inc., headquartered in the United States.

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