Beleaguered Subway chain slashes another 150 jobs

Subway slashed 150 jobs this week — the latest in a series of cutbacks at the struggling sandwich chain that kicked off before the coronavirus crushed restaurant sales nationwide. The latest cutbacks add to the 300 people Subway laid off in February amid record store closures that have plagued the company for years. In total, …

Subway slashed 150 jobs this week — the latest in a series of cutbacks at the struggling sandwich chain that kicked off before the coronavirus crushed restaurant sales nationwide.

The latest cutbacks add to the 300 people Subway laid off in February amid record store closures that have plagued the company for years. In total, the 450 cuts have reduced its staff, which stood at about 1,200 at the start of the year, by 38 percent, sources said.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to accelerate a restructuring plan for which we had been preparing,” a company spokesman said.

Subway in this round fired people who helped lease real estate for its restaurants, which are all owned by franchisees, a source said.

Chief Executive John Chidsey, a former Burger King executive who took over at Subway late last year, was striking a much happier tone on April 29 when he touted the company’s ability to tackle the pandemic on CNBC and Fox Business.

“Sales have been fairly decent for the most part,” Chidsey said to CNBC. “We’ve improved a lot in the last few weeks.”

“I actually think we’re ideally suited for an environment like this,” he said.

Chidsey explained that because Subway has physically smaller stores than peers like McDonald’s, franchisees have lower rents and less labor than their rivals.

Chidsey boasted that the chain is “ubiquitous,” with more than 27,000 US restaurants. In fact, Subway this month reported 23,802 US stores at the end of 2019, as a net 996 US eateries closed.

In New York State, the number of Subway restaurants fell 9 percent, from 1,016 to 937.

Subway declined to comment further for this story.