The History of Subway
The billionaire cofounder of the subway sandwich restaurant chain, Fred DeLuca was born in 1948 in New York City. At the age of 17, Fred DeLuca created his first sandwich store. He began this venture to raise funds for college, but his restaurants took over his life. After some initial failures, his business began to prosper. According to the Subway Corporation, there were 35,000 Subway restaurants in 91 countries by 2011. Apart from restaurants in North America and Europe, there are also restaurants in war-torn Iraq and Afghanistan.
How he made his fortune
Back in 1965, Fred DeLuca set out to fulfill his dream of becoming a medical doctor but he soon realized the futility of his quest to raise enough money after working for low wages in a hardware store the summer prior to college. Searching for a way to help pay for his education, a family friend , Dr. Peter Buck, suggested he open a submarine sandwich shop.With a loan of $1,000, the friend—Dr. Peter Buck—offered to become Fred’s partner, and a business relationship was forged changing the fast food industry landscape.
In 1965, at the age of 17 years-old, DeLuca opened his first store in Bridgeport, Connecticut, at the beginning of the summer. But, by the end of summer, only $6 was left from the original $1,000. Undeterred, Buck suggested a bold, new strategy: open another store to increase visibility. This new store also failed. Still undeterred, the co-founders, now opened a third store. This time, they tried something slightly different: they changed the name. Pete’s Submarines now became Subway. Through hard-work and relentless passion, the business eventually earned a profit of $7,000.Fred soon learned the basics of running a business, as well as the importance of serving a well-made, high quality product, providing excellent customer service, keeping operating costs low and finding great locations. These early lessons continue to serve as the foundation for successful SUBWAY® restaurants around the world.
DeLuca did pursue his earlier dream of going to college and graduated from the University of Bridgeport, but he had fallen in love with his business idea and decided to expand his restaurant idea to 30 stores in a decade. In 1974, DeLuca asked a friend to help grow his business (open first franchise), which had reached 15 stores by the end of the decade. DeLuca then conceived the idea of training owner-operators to help him reach his goal.
What he does now
Today DeLuca is married, with one child, and lives in Fort Lauderdale, Fl. Despite a fortune of $1.5 billion, he still goes to work. His work now consists of quality control. He drives across the country ordering sandwiches in Subway restaurants. Since there are well-over 10,000 Subway restaurants, he is seldom recognized by owners or their employees. DeLuca tries to visit as many outlets as he can and may eat as many as six submarines each day. DeLuca’s new goal is to be a bigger franchise chain than McDonald’s.
What We Can Learn
There are five take away lessons that a budding entrepreneur can take from DeLuca’s story:
1. He did not settle for a regular job in the hardware store, as most ordinary teenagers in his position
would have done to pay their bills, because he was motivated by a higher ideal: going to college to become a doctor.
2. He leveraged his relationship with Buck to develop an original idea in the restaurant business.
3. He did not give up after his initial failure of his first restaurant, but instead dreamed even bigger. When
this second failed, he added yet another store. After his third store, he finally turned a profit.
4. Finally, when he was not achieving his goal of having 30 restaurants in 10 years, only getting half that
number, he came up with the idea of creating an owner-operator business. Franchising resulted in tens of thousands of Subway stores around the world.
5. Today, when most people would have retired to a life of ease, he still pursues his vision of becoming
the fastest growing franchise in the world.
DeLuca's recipe for success
Start small. Deluca has collected hundreds of stories about successful businesses that started with next to no capital (for instance, Kinko’s launched with $5,000 in borrowed money). Money is never a barrier.
Earn a few pennies. Pulling in small profits builds discipline that helps you rake in big bucks later.
Ready, fire, aim. Don’t fret about getting it perfect before launch--start now, and then fine-tune the idea.
Continuously improve your business. Thirty years ago subway didn’t carry a turkey sub — it would have been sub sandwich heresy but now that low-fat bird is its best seller.
Believe in your people. It takes a team to win anything today. value good people and they’ll value your dreams.
Never run out of money. Borrow before you need to, because no one lends to the really needy. Anticipate cash-flow crunches and borrow before needs are urgent.
Build a brand name. Subway used to be just a public conveyance; now everybody knows it’s a sandwich shop, too.