The SUBWAY® brand will once again be joining the line-up of exhibitors at the National Convenience Show (NCS), held at Birmingham’s NEC from 18-20 April 2016. The NCS offers the SUBWAY® brand the perfect opportunity to continue to drive its expansion in the convenience store sector.

The SUBWAY® brand recently celebrated a key milestone, reaching its 5,000th store to open in Europe, which was located in a shopping centre in Livingston, Scotland.

There are currently over 2,300 SUBWAY® stores open across the UK and Ireland, of which 650 are open in non-traditional locations, such as convenience stores or petrol forecourts. Development in off-high street locations continues to be a key area of development for the SUBWAY® brand with many retail partnerships with high profile operators including Blakemore Retail, Applegreen and Euro Garages, as well as many independent retailers.

Providing expert advice and information from the SUBWAY® brand will be a team of SUBWAY® Development Agents, franchisees and Alice Chalmers, National Accounts Manager for SUBWAY® UK and Ireland. Members of the team will also be attending the ACS Summit on 19 April, further highlighting the SUBWAY® brand’s commitment to the convenience retail sector.

Alice comments: “The NCS provides the perfect platform to showcase the partnership opportunities available with the SUBWAY® brand. As the UK and Ireland’s largest specialist sandwich provider, it is vital for the SUBWAY® brand to lead the way in the convenience retail sector. When discussing opportunities with potential franchisees, the SUBWAY® brand highlights the benefits that the addition of a SUBWAY® franchise into a convenience store can bring; for example increased footfall and excellent business growth opportunities.”

The SUBWAY® brand has had great success in attracting new franchisees to join the franchise network at the National Convenience Show in previous years. Mohammed and Raeesah Jassat are a husband and wife SUBWAY® franchisee team from Urmston, Manchester. They first met with the SUBWAY® team at the National Convenience Show in 2014, and in July 2015 opened a SUBWAY® store within their Post Office and convenience store.

Mohammad explained: “After seeing the SUBWAY® brand at the National Convenience Show we wanted to explore the possibilities of having a SUBWAY® store, alongside the Post Office in the c-store. We were drawn to the SUBWAY® brand as its image is so strong and it has such a high awareness amongst customers.”

After getting in contact with their local SUBWAY® Field Consultant, and visiting other local SUBWAY® franchisees to get a good first-hand understanding of what it was like to be a SUBWAY® franchisee, Mohammad and Raeesah were sold on becoming a part of the franchise. Mohammad said: “I came away from that experience excited and looking forward to being a part of that group, all the franchisees knew each other and there was a friendly competitiveness between them. Most of all I was surprised to find out how much being a SUBWAY® franchisee had changed their lives. Some of the franchisees were in convenience stores or petrol forecourts and said that introducing the SUBWAY® brand had brought a different type of dynamism to their business.”