Name: Subway moving ‘less than 10 percent’ of Milford HQ jobs to Miami
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Subway moving ‘less than 10 percent’ of Milford HQ jobs to Miami

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This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateSubway’s new CEO is moving some corporate staff to an office in the Miami-area where he lives, raising questions about the company’s Milford headquarters.Subway confirmed it will move an unspecified number of Milford staff south, including managers in marketing, culinary and global strategy. A company spokesperson told Hearst Connecticut Media that “less than 10 percent of Milford employees” are being affected in the moves, without providing a precise number.The report comes on the heels of 500 last year during the pandemic from a Milford work force of about 1,200 people at the start of 2020.Milford’s head of economic development Julie Nash responded to a Hearst Connecticut message to Mayor Ben Blake for comment on the Subway decision, with describing as “a great relationship” the city’s dealings with the giant with its headquarters on Sub Way,“There’s a lot of restructuring wtih a lot of companies these days,” Nash said. “We'll see what happens — I am confident that they are going to be in Milford for a long time.”More BusinessFred DeLuca, who founded Subway in Bridgeport in 1965 with backing from Dr. Peter Buck of Danbury and built it into one of Connecticut’s best-known, homegrown brands, died of cancer in Florida in September 2015.In November 2019, Subway hired CEO John Chidsey as the permanent replacement for Suzanne Greco, who took over as CEO in 2015 in place of DeLuca, her brother. Between 2006 and 2010, Chidsey led Burger King which has its headquarters in Miami.Chidsey has a large home fronting the Coral Gables Waterway canal south of downtown Miami, last appraised at $6 million two years ago by Miami-Dade County.Subway did not provide additional details immediately Friday in response to a Hearst Connecticut query, with a spokesperson forwarding a corporate statement that the “majority of the company’s workforce remains at our Milford ... headquarters” and that the relocation allows Subway to collaborate more closely with the Independent Purchasing Cooperative based in Miami, which supplies Subway restaurants.In a statement Friday afternoon, state Sen. James Maroney, D-Milford, called the news “disappointing” and said the company has a history as an “excellent corporate citizen” in Milford.“Unfortunately, it is a trend for many companies to relocate employees to be closer to where the CEO lives and it’s unfortunate there will be more layoffs as units will close here,” Maroney said in a press release. “The good news is, a majority of employees will remain in Milford.”In April of 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor approved enhanced unemployment benefits for about 100 workers that lost their jobs at Subway’s headquarters — many of them outside information technology contractors — under the federal Trade Adjustment Assistance, invoked to help workers whose companies move jobs to countries with lower labor costs.Chidsey took the Subway job with the central task of revamping Subway’s appeal, as Jersey Mike’s Subs gains steam and the fast-food old guard of McDonald’s and Burger King expand menus and redesign restaurants.Within a few months, Chidsey’s job would morph into crisis response as the COVID-19 pandemic slammed the food sector.Chidsey told NBC’s Today last May that about 18 percent of Subway’s U.S. locations closed during the first wave of the pandemic, largely those located in malls, college campuses and other sites subject to mandatory closures.“A new team basically came to Subway in the last year,” Chidsey said in response to a question on the layoffs after he took the job. “We were already underway with restructuring and making the company more entrepreneurial, making it more efficient, so all the plans that we had really were laid well before coronavirus. I will be honest — coronavirus caused us to move up one or two of our staged moves.Our easy-to-use guide will help you navigate some of the most popular housing markets in CT.“I think Subway will actually do quite well in this environment,” Chidsey added. “We have such a smaller footprint than our traditional [quick service restaurant] competitors, and because of that we can make money at a much lower sales level than a lot of our competitors.”For many years, Subway was a fixture at the top of the influential Franchise 500 list published by Entrepreneur Media, the first stop where many would-be franchise owners shop for potential business territories to purchase.But Subway on the Franchise 500, and in this year’s installment dropped off the list completely. Jersey Mike’s, McAlister’s Deli, Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches and Firehouse Subs have hung onto their Franchise 500 rankings amid significant competition from chains offering Mexican fare, fried chicken and emerging concepts like Hawaiian poke.According to Entrepreneur, as of 2019 a Subway franchise cost $15,000 to cover the initial fee and anywhere from $140,000 to $340,000 for startup costs, with franchise rights extending 20 years before renewal. At that point, franchisees paid 8 percent of their receipts as a royalty fee and chipped in another 4.5 percent for advertising the company coordinates.Connecticut lost another homegrown franchise success story in 2018, after Edible Arrangements to Atlanta after hiring a new CEO.Several other heads of Connecticut-based companies have Florida abodes, including Steve Hafner of Kayak and Paul Tudor Jones of Tudor Investment in Stamford and Thomas Peterffy of Interactive Brokers in Greenwich.A few took their headquarters offices with them to Miami in establishing residency there, including Barry Sternlicht with Starwood Capital Group and Eddie Lampert with his ESL Investments.“A little bit of irony, because Connecticut benefited from its ... proximity to New York City, in that a lot of CEOs were living in Greenwich so they moved their companies to Connecticut,” said Fred McKinney, a Quinnipiac University professor who chairs the school’s entrepreneurship and innovation programs.“The CEO’s location and that of the senior management — where they actually live — is a factor. I don’t think it’s the only factor, but it is one.”Includes prior reporting by Luther Turmelle.Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulmanOur easy-to-use guide will help you navigate some of the most popular housing markets in CT.

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateSubway’s new CEO is moving some corporate staff to an office in the Miami-area where he lives, raising questions about the company’s Milford headquarters.Subway confirmed it will move an unspecified number of Milford staff south, including managers in marketing, culinary and global strategy. A company spokesperson told Hearst Connecticut Media that “less than 10 percent of Milford employees” are being affected in the moves, without providing a precise number.The report comes on the heels of 500 last year during the pandemic from a...

Subway moving ‘less than 10 percent’ of Milford HQ jobs to Miami

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