OPINION: My in-store Subway has exceeded my expectations

We launched our in-store Subway business at the beginning of July 2016. In the year since then, its growth and turnover have hugely exceeded my expectations.

This hasn’t happened by chance – we’ve delivered a consistently high level of quality and service, and added to this we have launched a marketing programme that reaches potential customers well beyond those that regularly use our Family Shopper store.

I have set our Subway franchise up as a separate business, to ensure that its high margin and cost structure do not distort the store’s daily business.

That said, for branding and marketing we have focused on creating a brand that links both Subway and Family Shopper. I felt that the most important part of what we do is where we are. The town of Blantyre has been our home for nearly 30 years, so I have used it as the link between our related brands.

The important part of branding is that we use it consistently across everything we do. From the store fascia through to social media and all the things that we print, we are using the associated logos.

The key difference is that Family Shopper is the Red & Black and we use Subway’s Green & Yellow.

An important part of any new food-to-go venture is to get people to sample what we offer. To encourage regular new tasters we have created our own bespoke vouchers, and have given some to some local football clubs, the boxing club and dance studio.

Each club was presented with 52 vouchers for the year. I have asked that they give the voucher to the youngster who has shown the best effort each week. A side benefit of this is that the clubs have told their story on their Facebook page by posting each week’s recipient of the voucher.

When the local charities and organisations are putting on events we support them with a different voucher. This is for a £20 platter, and through this we’ve been able to bring in members of the community who may not be our customers and never tried the Subway range before.

The cost price of a platter to the store is about £6. It’s a terrific investment for the business and a worthwhile prize voucher for the winner. It also reinforces our reputation as a key supporter of the community.

If a customer is coming in and ordering a prize platter, they will take it and share it with their family or friends. There is every likelihood that some of the people that share the meal will not have tried a Subway product before. More importantly they may never have considered trying them at all as the product may not have appealed to them.

A lot of people prejudge the product and ‘what it is going to be like’. Getting the product into their hands is a risk-free chance to try it and there it is probability that they will discover that they do like what the eat.

I won’t say that creating success with our Subway kitchen has been simple, but I am delighted with what my team has achieved in its first year.