Subway Launches Delivery Services with Four Different Partnerships

Subway restaurants are bringing their popular sandwiches to consumer homes through their partnerships with Door Dash, Grubhub, Postmates and Uber Eats. About 9,000 Subway restaurants will now offer delivery services and the company plans on expanding these services to more restaurants in the coming months.

“Delivery is more than just giving our guests a way to order the sandwiches they want,” said Michael Lang, Subway’s senior director of global convenience. “We want to connect with consumers and give them the convenience of choice, whether it’s in a customized, made-to-order sandwich or in how they get their meals. Amazing partners like DoorDash, Grubhub, Postmates, and Uber Eats give us the opportunity to reach guests wherever they are and whenever they get a Subway craving.”

This announcement makes Subway one of the first quick-service restaurants to partner with all four of the largest delivery service providers in the US. Considering the popularity of food delivery services and the fact that they are expected to grow at least 12 percent in the next five years, it’s no surprise that Subway made this move. It’s quite clear that consumers want the convenience of home delivery options.

“We’ve been testing delivery with Subway for quite some time. In fact, we’ve delivered 43 miles of subs – that’s 221,000 pounds of sandwiches to hungry third-party users,” said Dan Mosher, SVP, Merchant Lead Postmates. “This official partnership enables them to bring on-demand delivery to more customers faster, delivering their favorite subs right to their door.”

In terms of partnerships, Subway hit the jackpot. Grubhub, UberEats and DoorDash are considered to be three of the biggest food delivery platforms in the US. GrubHub seems to have the most expansive reach with over 15.1 million active users. Whereas UberEats comes in at a close second with 8.7 million active diners using the app as of the first quarter of 2017. However, DoorDash has the second largest market share next to GrubHub because of their partnerships with national restaurant chains.

Subway now joins other popular fast food chains such as McDonald’s, Taco Bell, KFC and Panera with their third-party delivery services. Delivery sales have increased by 20 percent over the last five years because of this growing demand for food delivery services.

However, this is also setting a new standard for the food industry as consumers continue to demand fast and convenient food services. As more restaurants start to partner with delivery companies, it is likely that delivery will become more of a necessity than a way to boost sales.  The growing number of restaurants offering delivery services is indicative of this trend which means that food companies really need to consider delivery as an option in order to stay relevant in the foodservice industry.