Subway, one of the largest food chains in the world, has entered Gujarat by opening its first outlet in Ahmedabad on Tuesday.
The company plans to expand its network in other cities of the state and open more outlets in Ahmedabad. Subway has opened its Ahmedabad outlet through a franchisee network at Shri Krishna Centre, near Crossword, Mithakhali. Company officials said Subway has 26 outlets in the country.
"We plan to double this by the year end and reach the 200-mark within seven years," said Gurpreet Gulri, area development manager, Subway Systems India.
He said a second outlet in Ahmedabad will be opened in the Satellite area next month and another will be opened in Vadodara before December.
Besides the entire Subway menu, the company will sell eight to ten localised sandwiches to meet local demand, the official said. The company has an edge over other fast food joints because all foods will be prepared after the order is given, he said.
Also, the food will be low calorie as no food item will be fried, he said. After entering India about two years ago, Subway went on a network expansion a year ago.
The company is developing six outlets in Mumbai, six more in Delhi and three in Bangalore, Gulri said. An outlet was opened just three days ago in Hyderabad and outlets will be opened within the next month in Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Kolkata and some other cities, the official said.
The franchisee for the Ahmedabad Subway outlet is being run by Kameshwar Foods.
Dipen Patel, a co-owner of the outlet, said, "Quality was the single point that attracted us to Subway."
Krunal Patel, a partner of the outlet, said Gujaratis who visit other countries have largely appreciated Subway food and "when NRIs come back to Ahmedabad, we will be able to provide them the same quality food."
Subway currently has nearly 20,000 outlets in 74 countries.
About 3,500 of these locations are non-traditional units such as convenience stores, truck shops, colleges and universities, hospitals, military bases and arenas.
The company had registered sales of $5 billion in the past fiscal year.
According to the agreement with the franchisee, Subway will get eight per cent of all gross sales, while the investment has to be made by the franchisee.
The company will, however, provide equipment and training to the staff and will conduct supervision of the premises regularly.
Subway has assigned Snowman India the task of providing raw materials to all its outlets.