Watami wanted sandwiches, so it went out and bought Subway.

Every day, no small number of people in Japan, finding themselves craving sandwiches, go out and buy Subway. That’s what Watami did this week, but not in the way that you or I might buy Subway, picking up a ham and cheese or teriyaki chicken sub. See, the Watami in question is a company, and they’ve just purchased Subway Japan.

Watami is no stranger to the restaurant business, but Subway sandwiches are a new field for them. The company is best known for the Watami chain of izakaya, or Japanese-style pubs that specialize in small, sharable plates of food to snack on while knocking back beer, chu-hi cocktails, or other alcoholic beverages.

In recent years, though, Watami the company has been growing more diverse in its activities and offerings. In addition to starting a home food delivery business and acquiring a number of non-izakaya restaurants, including the Japanese branches of American bar and grill TGI Fridays, they also started the Watami Farm venture, with a focus on using environmentally friendly practices such as sustainable and renewable energy and organic crops to supply the company’s restaurants with ingredients. Watami says it plans to use Watami Farm produce in developing new menu items for Subway Japan branches.

▼ A map of some of Watami’s agricultural facilities, which may one day be part of the supply chain for Subway’s Infinite Destroyer sandwich 

Subway opened its first branches in Japan in 1991, when Subway Japan was owned by Suntory Holdings. After expanding to roughly 500 locations in 2014, Suntory’s franchise contract ended in 2016, after which ownership of Suntory Japan was transferred to Netherlands-based legal and marketing services company Subway International B.V., with Subway of America directly managing Subway Japan’s operations prior to Subway Japan Inc.’s acquisition by Watami. Subway Japan Inc. is now a fully owned subsidiary of Watami, who simultaneously entered into a 10-year “master franchise” agreement to operate under the Subway brand in Japan. Watami is apparently already thinking even more long-term, though, saying that within the next 20 years it wants to expand from its current 178 branches in Japan to 3,000.

Source: PR Times, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Jiji
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