Subway Overtakes McDonald's in Fast Food League

From the BBC: Sandwich group Subway has overtaken McDonald's as the world's largest restaurant chain, the company has said.

The fast-food franchise had 33,749 sites across the globe at the end of last year, compared with 32,737 for McDonald's.

In recent years, US-based Subway has made a major push into international markets with its successful franchised business model, which emphasises small, low-cost outlets.

The privately-owned company said it had been "on a great run".

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Food Franchises Market In-Store Contactless

EAT. and Subway are launching contactless enabled debit and credit card machines to make transactions quicker and easier.

The food franchises have in-store marketing campaigns to highlight that customers can use these machines when spending £15 or less. Point-of-sale material is featured in EAT. this week and has already appeared in Subway’s London stores, with the aim of making the millions of contactless cardholders in the capital aware they can make faster transactions.

The marketing campaign and roll out of contactless in EAT. and Subway shops have been run in partnership with Barclaycard, the biggest provider of contactless payment terminals in the UK.

The campaign seeks to raise the profile of the contactless symbol, which is common to both the cards with the relevant technology and the retail outlets that are able to accept contactless payment.

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Pizza Franchise Explores Game Marketing

Papa John’s pizza franchise is offering free pizzas and prizes for Papa’s Pizzeria owners.

X2 Games, the wholly owned publishing subsidiary of award-winning UK developer Exient Ltd, has announced that the pizza redemption mechanic for their iPhone title Papa’s Pizzeria has passed the final testing phases and is now incorporated within the game.

The new mechanic gives players the opportunity to redeem in-game codes for real world prizes when they place an order with Papa John’s Pizza, allowing consumers to not only create Papa John’s pizzas but enjoy the taste as well.

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Fast-Food Franchises are Recession-Proof

Not only are fast-food franchises recession-proof, they actually perform better during lean economic times it seems.

Fast food sales have grown during the last 18 months as people, fearful of shrinking incomes, are eschewing even mid-priced eateries in favour of fried chicken, burgers, pizzas, sub sandwiches and other budget takeaway options.

Fast food prices are often lower even than the sum cost of a home-cooked meal's ingredients.

And franchises, benefiting from bulk buying, can offer even more competitive prices than their non-franchised rivals.

It’s well documented – as evidenced by Cadbury’s recent sales boost – that people covet comfort foods even more during times of adversity.

Not that the health concerns of recent years have suddenly disappeared.

But famous names like McDonald's and Subway have proven as responsive to the concerns of customers as you’d expect from such accomplished players.

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Domino's Franchise Revels in Recession's Efforts

From the Financial Times: In the 16 years since two Anglo-American brothers bought the rights to own, operate and franchise Domino’s stores in the UK and Ireland from its US parent, the pizza delivery chain has risen to become one of the biggest and most successful franchises in the country.

The numbers make for impressive reading. Having built a chain of 553 franchised stores, the group, which floated on Aim in 1999 and moved to the main market last year, accounts for one in six home delivered meals in Britain and one in three pizzas.

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