Subway is putting itself up for sale, according to reports, after being under family control for 58 years.
The Guardian, which cited The Wall Street Journal, said the sandwich chain is exploring the possible sale of the business which was founded by Fred DeLuca and Peter Buck, and would be valued at more than US$10bn.
Rising costs and mounting competition are said to have taken their toll on the company after years of rapid growth, with 37,000 restaurants in over 100 countries.
However, the company’s rise has been littered with scandals and legal battles along the way, particularly over the last decade.
Jared Fogle, who had become the official spokesperson for Subway after claiming to have lost 245 lbs while eating its sandwiches was imprisoned for 15 years on child pornography charges.
In 2021, a class-action lawsuit filed in California claimed its tuna sandwiches were bereft of tuna as an ingredient and were instead made up of a “mixture of various concoctions.”
Also in 2021, a lawsuit filed in Nevada claimed some of its large franchisees had exploited immigrants in the US.
An Irish court also ruled that Subway’s bread could not be defined as bread for tax purposes because of its high sugar content, five times more sugar than in Ireland’s definition of bread.