Subway, the international quick-service restaurant chain, is offering free sandwiches for life to one lucky winner who agrees to legally change their first name to “Subway,” and said Tuesday nearly 10,000 people answered the call in just four days.
Key Takeaways
- Subway will select one winner from those nearly 10,000 people to give $50,000 in gift cards, as well as $750 to cover the legal fees associated with the name change, according to the contest rules.
- The company accepted entries for the contest online from August 1 to 4.
- The winner will be selected randomly later this month, according to the rules.
Key Background
This is not the first time Subway has asked fans to commit outrageous acts in exchange for free sandwiches. In 2022, Subway gave James Kunz of Fort Collins, Colorado, free sandwiches for life—via $50,000 in gift cards—after he got a 12-by-12-inch tattoo of the logo of Subway’s latest promotion, the “Subway Series,” NBC’s TODAY show reported. Kunz told TODAY that “I love Subway, so I’m proud of this.” The company also gave one year of free sandwiches to eight others who got 3-inch tattoos.
Tangent
Subway is currently looking for a corporate buyer. The company confirmed to the Wall Street Journal in February it has retained JPMorgan Chase as an adviser for what could be a $10 billion sale. With about 37,000 sandwich shops worldwide and about 22,000 in the U.S., Subway is the largest restaurant chain in the U.S. by number of locations.
Its longtime strategy of aggressively expanding to new locations through shops owned by franchisees got it to its peak revenue of $18 billion in 2012, but that number has been declining since, the Journal reported, citing an industry research firm. However, in February, the company said 2022 was “a record-setting year” and boasted about a 9.2% increase in same-store sales over 2021, and a 29.1% increase over 2020.
The company, which is based in Milford, Connecticut, has been owned by the families of its now-deceased founders, Fred DeLuca and Peter Buck, for more than five decades. A Forbes investigation published in April found those two founders and their families spent decades devising elaborate schemes to ensure as much of the company’s revenue would go to themselves and their charities as possible, even as many franchise owners struggle.
This article was first published on forbes.com and all figures are in USD.
