Almost two months have handed since phrase got here that Federal Commerce Fee is investigating whether or not the sale of the Subway sandwich chain must be allowed to go forward.

But, to this point, there was no indication of which method the FTC is leaning. And a few FTC probes can take as much as a 12 months.

Opponents of the Subway sale to Roark Capital, the non-public fairness agency that owns a bunch of different restaurant operators and franchises (together with Subway rival Jimmy John’s), contend that including Subway to Roark’s roster will consolidate an excessive amount of of the sandwich market underneath one proprietor.

“We don’t want one other non-public fairness deal that would result in increased meals costs for customers,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., stated in throwing her assist behind the FTC investigation.

What’s the Common Revenue of a Subway Restaurant Franchise Proprietor?

Roark pays as much as $9.55 billion for the sandwich chain, in response to phrases of the deal introduced late final summer season. Subway’s household homeowners had been hoping to fetch $10 billion once they put the corporate up on the market in February 2023.

The investigation is within the early levels, Politico reported late final 12 months, including: “Merger critiques by antitrust regulators can usually take a 12 months or extra. The FTC can both sue to dam the merger, attain an settlement with the businesses that alleviates its considerations, or take no motion in any respect.”

Within the meantime, Subway is transferring ahead with new promotions and different modifications meant to extend retailer gross sales.

Among the many modifications is a requirement that all franchises settle for digital coupons. Among the many new merchandise is a assortment of three snacks that Subway is looking, “Sidekicks.” The three new footlong snacks are a Subway chocolate chip cookie formed into a protracted strip and sufficiently big for 4 folks, in addition to footlong churros and pretzels.

Roark’s bid to amass Subway adopted a rebound that noticed Subway’s gross sales climb in 2022 and early 2023.

Credit score for the turnaround goes partially to new advertising and marketing campaigns, together with a latest, zany, “wait a minute, they did what?” marketing campaign.

Subway’s summer season promotion asking superfans to point out their tremendous fandom went so properly that 10,000 folks had moved to alter their names legally to “Subway” in change for sandwiches for all times.

The “Subway” identify promotion is according to the most recent installment in what Subway calls its “multiyear transformation journey.” The corporate, which stays one of many world’s largest chain restaurant operations regardless of closing 1000’s of retailers in recent times, is underneath strain to enhance the underside line each for itself and its particular person franchise homeowners.

“This replace is Subway’s most advanced, investing greater than $80 million to deliver deli meat slicers to greater than 20,000 U.S. eating places and putting in a slicer each 5 minutes over the course of 9 months to prepare for this summer season’s debut,” Subway stated in a information launch. “To showcase its new freshly sliced meats, Subway’s culinary workforce spent over a 12 months crafting the recipes for its Deli Hero subs.”