Four of Subway's Biggest Attempts to Reinvent Its Sandwiches

Subway, a prominent sandwich chain with thousands of locations in the United States, will start slicing its deli meat at its stores instead of receiving it sliced from its factories in its latest attempt to reinvent its sandwiches.

The restaurant currently slices vegetables and bakes bread and cookies every day at its locations, but adding the freshly sliced meat "felt like the natural step that we needed to get back to and address," Trevor Haynes, president of Subway's North America operations, told CNN on Wednesday.

The company has been trying to maintain a competitive standing over the past few years as many of its rivals began offering customized options to customers. Subway's annual sales at its U.S. locations have dipped compared to some of its rivals, with data from QSR Magazine showing that an average Subway location ranks less than $500,000. Its top three rivals—Panera Bread, Arby's and Jimmy John's—pulled in nearly $1 million per unit.

Slicing meat in-house boosts freshness as well as brings Subway to a similar level with its competitors like Jimmy John's, Jersey Mike's Subs and Firehouse Subs. All three of Subway's rivals have been increasing their store counts in recent years, while the sandwich giant closed around 7,000 locations since 2016, according to CNN.

Subway will be offering four new sandwiches to highlight its new meat slicer method, including garlic roast beef, ham, turkey and "The Beast" subs.

The food chain has previously revamped its products in different attempts to boost sales and keep up with the competition. Here are some of the ways Subway reinvented its sandwiches:

From V Cut to Hinge Cut

The company changed its bread-cutting technique from the V-cut, also referred to as the U-gouge, to its now-standard hinge cut. Subway said on Twitter in 2016 that the Hinge cut allows customers to pile up more ingredients. The U-gouge was meant to keep the ingredients safely secured within the sandwich, but customers preferred a more practical cut designed to add more fillings inside the bread, The Daily Meal reported last week.

The U-gouge was first developed when the restaurant opened in 1965, according to a Subway representative, who said that the hinge cut improved the distribution of ingredients and consistency.

Toasting Its Subs

Subway began using a freshly toasted approach when offering sandwiches to its customers in the early 2000s across all its locations. The Daily Herald reported in 2004 that the sandwich shop began using a stand-along unit oven that toasts sandwiches with the same speed as a microwave, but more baked and crispier.

Revamping Its Sandwich Menu

Last year, Subway announced that it is changing its menu by moving away from customization and instead offering 12 sandwiches designed to be ordered as they are, the company said in a press release at the time.

The new Subway Series menu rolled out with four categories: Cheesesteaks, Italianos, Chicken, and Clubs. Each category had three sandwiches that could be ordered by number or name.

New Bread Recipes

Subway announced its Eat Fresh Refresh change in 2021, offering two new bread recipes, improved proteins, new toppings and four new sandwiches.

The sandwich chain also made a few changes to its menu at the time, slicing its turkey and ham more thinly and recreating its back to hickory smoked. It also brought back items such as rotisserie-style chicken and roast beef.

Newsweek reached out to Subway's press office via email for comment.