LISTEN TO ARTICLE 2:38 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Share Tweet Post Email 
 
 Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg 
 
 Subway Restaurants, the world’s most ubiquitous dining chain, will continue closing U.S. stores as it expands internationally. 
 
 After peppering the nation with thousands of locations, closely held Subway is retrenching. This year, the sandwich purveyor is planning to shut about 500 more of its U.S. shops. Last year, more than 800 stores went dark, with the total U.S. count dropping to 25,908. It also closed restaurants in 2016. 
 
 “We want to be sure that we have the best location,” Chief Executive Officer Suzanne Greco, 60, said in a phone interview. “We focused in the past on restaurant count. We’re focused now on strengthening market share.” 
 
 “Store count isn’t everything,” she said. “It’s about growing the business.” 
 
 Closing Up Shop Sandwich chain Subway is pulling back U.S. growth amid more competition Source: Company, Technomic 
 
 The sandwich shop, founded more than 50 years ago, is struggling to boost sales in the U.S. as newer, more modern chains emerge. Greco said Subway had been hurt by fierce competition in the U.S., including from a resurgent McDonald’s Corp., whose domestic system sales rose 3.4 percent last year, according to data from researcher Technomic. Subway’s fell 4.4 percent. 
 
 It’s also now faced with supermarkets and gas stations that are selling more grab-and-go fare, putting immense pressure on Subway to be faster and more convenient. Along with the closures, some locations are being relocated, and Subway is now using data from SiteZeus to choose better real estate, Greco said. 
 
 Rewards Program 
 
 Subway is banking on a new loyalty program, along with menu innovation, to boost traffic. The rewards system, which offers $2 discounts and free items, is available for the chain’s domestic and Canadian locations. It’s also remodeling stores for a sleeker look with touch-screen ordering kiosks. 
 
 But the real opportunity for expansion is abroad, Greco said. This year, the chain will add more than 1,000 locations outside of North America, and is focused on growth in countries including the U.K., Germany, South Korea, India, China and Mexico. 
 
 Milford, Connecticut-based Subway is owned by Doctor’s Associates Inc. and was founded about 53 years ago by Fred DeLuca and Peter Buck. Greco took over in 2015 after the death of DeLuca, her older brother. The chain, which has about 43,700 stores globally, is entirely owned by franchisees. 
 
 While there have been recent management changes at Subway, Greco says she’s not going anywhere. 
 
 “Subway is in my blood, I’ve been here since Day One,” she said. “I still have some good years ahead of me.” 

 Fast food sandwich chain Subway expects to close about 500 stores in North America this year. 
 
 But it's also hoping to open as many as 1,000 stores overseas. 
 
 The company has 44,000 locations globally -- more than any other retailer. The National Retail Federation put its US store count at nearly 27,000 as of 2016, compared to 17,500 for Yum Brands (YUM), which runs Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC, and the 14,000 locations for McDonald's (MCD). 
 
 The company said Wednesday it expects stores to close after it rolls out a revitalization plan, announced last summer, that will require franchise owners to invest more in their operations. All Subway stores are franchise owned, rather than owned by the company. The plans to revamp locations include adding self-service kiosks, more comfortable seating and Wi-Fi and USB charging ports. In February, Subway also announced plans for a loyalty program to win back customers and stem slumping sales. 
 
 Subway's store count shrinks for first time in company's history 
 
 Store closings are new for Subway. It had a net loss of more than 350 US stores in 2016, the first year in the company's history that it trimmed rather than increased its number of stores. The privately held company has yet to disclose its 2017 store count, but there were reports of hundreds of store closings. 
 
 "Looking out over the next decade, we anticipate having a slightly smaller, but more profitable footprint in North America and a significantly larger footprint in the rest of the world," the company said on Wednesday. 
 
 Many of Subway's locations are smaller compared to other fast food rivals. That's one of the reasons there are so many of them -- it's much less expensive for a franchisee to open a Subway storefront rather than one for McDonald's or Burger King. 
 
 Related: Subway unveils loyalty program to stem slump in sales 
 
 Many traditional brick-and-mortar stores have been closing locations in recent years, as people buy more goods online. But that hasn't been the case for fast food, where there is virtually no competition from online competitors. 
 
 Fast food sales on the other hand are getting hit by the drop in retail foot traffic in the places like malls, as well as the growing demand for healthier food. 
 
 Subway also took a public relations hit in 2015 when Subway spokesman Jared Fogle pleaded guilty to charges of child pornography and crossing state lines to pay for sex with minors. He was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison. The company had not used him in a television commercial since 2013, and it quickly cut ties with him when his legal problems became public.
– Sandwich lovers may soon have to drive a few more miles more for their footlongs. Bloomberg reports that Subway Restaurants will be shuttering 500 or so of its US stores, leaving about 25,400 open. (No specifics yet on which locations are closing.) This latest round of closures follows shutdowns in 2016 and in 2017, with about 800 last year. "We focused in the past on restaurant count. We're focused now on strengthening market share," says Subway CEO Suzanne Greco, who adds she's in for the long haul: "Subway is in my blood." CNNMoney notes Subway boasts more stores worldwide—44,000 and counting—than any other fast-food giant, but it's facing fierce competition from more modern chains (CNBC cites Panera and Chipotle, among others), and even from gas stations and supermarkets that offer bites to grab on the go. To help boost sales, it's remodeling some locations, trying out new menu items, and putting a customer loyalty program in place. Not that the company is reducing store count everywhere: It says it will be expanding internationally, opening up more than 1,000 locations in Germany, the UK, India, Mexico, China, and South Korea.