Subway on their prime time TV slot
Published: 01 April 2019
Franchising with Subway will be showcased on BBC One's The One Show this week for a special mini-series on franchising. The four-part series, airing from Monday 1 to Thursday 4 April 2019, joins new franchise owner, Kareemaa Musa and her Subway business development agent Rachana Pancholi on the journey to opening a new franchise. Kareemaa had started the franchise process with her late husband who sadly passed away before the business was under way. Bravely, Kareemaa decided to continue.
Rachana – who has her own Subway stores and is responsible for development throughout South Yorkshire and Derbyshire – played a crucial role in launching the Kareemaa’s Barnsley-based franchise. She spoke to Business Franchise about the TV coverage, why it’s good for Subway, for the industry overall, and why viewers should brace themselves for an emotional ride…
The One Show – that’s a programme with an average 5 million tuning in… How did the Subway feature come about?
I took part in Radio 4’s business show The Bottom Line hosted by Evan Davies. On the back of that, a producer from The One Show contacted me to discuss a feature about franchising.
It's exciting – although not as commonplace as it should be – to see franchising on a mainstream, popular outlet, and over several nights! Great for Subway, but also good news for the industry?
You're absolutely right... it's not done as often as it could be, people don't know enough about the industry, so it’s real kudos for the franchising world to be able to get onto the BBC.
This brings the franchising model to a much wider audience…
Yeah, it’s mass market! It's phenomenal really to have this opportunity.
What’s interesting is there's so many people thinking about running their own business and running your own business is so daunting because you don't know where to start. Yet going into franchising, you have all the systems in place, like we do at Subway. The beauty of it is: you're not reinventing the wheel, and you've got support of an entire team behind you, so I think that for us [this coverage] is really, really critical. I hope these four films really bring to light that, as with Kareemaa who went through tragedy and came out the other end to run her own business as a single mother, if someone in that situation can do it, almost anybody can do it.
Yes, Kareemaa's story is an incredible one, isn't it?
It is. Hamid and Kareemaa came to see me a couple of years ago keen on selling their convenience store and coming into the brand... obviously we welcome business-astute people like that with open arms! We started the process but sadly, and suddenly, Kareemaa's husband, Hamid, passed away from a heart condition – at really quite a young age – and they had two young children. It was really difficult for Kareemaa and at that point we said: “You don't have to do this, we can buy this off you… please don't worry.” I wanted to make that opportunity available, to take away any stress and anxiety she already had, and be able to remove that worry from her.
But she came back and said: “No I really want to do this because that's what we set out to do together, and he'll be really proud of me if I do this.” Plus both her girls were supportive so they went ahead. She's just so incredibly inspirational!
So very much triumph in the face of adversity, then?
It's probably the most tragic start to a business launch you could hear, but to be there and to help her through this has been a real honour for me. I’ve done this day in, day out for a long time, but this has been an emotional rollercoaster for us all! It's just been wonderful to see her make a success of her store.
The beauty of the films is that they show you the support that Subway provides all the way – all of the training, through to opening the store and the participation franchisees have in the brand, actually being part of growing it. So it takes people through the journey...
Hopefully people will realise that even global brands such as Subway, when trading as a franchise, are very much a local business and part of the community?
Absolutely. Kareemaa’s invested in the community, and has recruited there. She’s a local entrepreneur who has employed within in her community. It's not the face of a big business that's come in, it's a local entrepreneur. Plus, it’s Yorkshire – and so there's a very strong sense of community and friendliness there!
What’s the future for Kareemaa? Will she get the multi-unit bug?
I think she will, and she’s not far off, to be fair! She’s keen to develop and grow – that's always been her ambition and was her husband's too, to open more stores. It's a very simple model to pick up and replicate if you’re prepared to work hard, and that's why there are so many multi-unit owners ... and I think she'll be the same.
Tell us about the Fresh Forward facelift the brand is undergoing…
We launched it in 2017. It's a wonderful uplift for the brand and as a customer experience. It's so much more modern – really clean lines, nice customer-facing touches, such USB-charging ports, digital menu boards... it's just wonderful! They're stunning places when you walk in and the consumer feedback our guests give us is just fantastic, amazing, saying it’s just so fresh and makes them want to return. This really takes the brand forward to another level.
