{"id":1556,"date":"2025-07-29T12:21:40","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T12:21:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mediaaccess.org.au\/resources\/pro-tips\/subway-franchisee-declares-bankruptcy-reasons-remain-unclear.html"},"modified":"2026-02-26T08:53:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T08:53:05","slug":"subway-franchisee-declares-bankruptcy-reasons-remain-unclear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mediaaccess.org.au\/resources\/pro-tips\/subway-franchisee-declares-bankruptcy-reasons-remain-unclear.html","title":{"rendered":"Subway Franchisee Declares Bankruptcy, Reasons Remain Unclear"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \"Sign\n<\/picture><\/p>\n

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Launching your own restaurant can be a risky venture if you lack the expertise to operate an eatery. For those entrepreneurs who have always appreciated a good meal and have aspired to own a restaurant, a franchise might seem like a secure choice. After all, with a large corporation providing support, supplies, location, and a roadmap for operations, how unstable could it really be?<\/p>\n

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Unfortunately, if you’re a Subway franchisee, the reality is quite unstable. Even as America’s largest fast-food chain, Subway couldn’t avoid shutting down numerous locations starting in 2024. In 2025, the situation worsened for Subway when The Street<\/a> reported that a California-based Subway franchisee filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The reasons remain unclear, but it’s evident that Subway is in trouble and its franchisees are experiencing the impact.<\/p>\n

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What happened to the Subway franchisee who filed for bankruptcy?<\/h2>\n

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Many chain restaurants struggled in 2024, and in 2025, the restaurant industry as a whole might face another challenging year, including fast food. According to The Street<\/a>, a Subway franchise owner in Montebello, California, filed a petition on June 25, 2025, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California. The Subchapter V petition aimed to restructure the business to keep it operational and protect the franchise, listing assets between $50,000 to $100,000 and liabilities between $100,000 to $500,000, without specifying a reason in the bankruptcy filing.<\/p>\n

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Unfortunately, this isn’t the first instance of a Subway franchise owner filing for bankruptcy. As reported by Restaurant Business<\/a>, a Subway franchisee in Texas filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for River Subs LLC, which operated 48 Subways in the San Antonio area and incurred a $3 million loss in a 2023 wrongful death lawsuit. Although court documents indicated assets and liabilities ranging from $1 million to $10 million, no official cause was cited for the bankruptcy.<\/p>\n

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How much money does a typical Subway franchise make?<\/h2>\n

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Subway is a recognized name in fast food, and compared to Quiznos, Jersey Mike’s, and Jimmy John’s, it offers considerable value for customers craving a sandwich. As a franchise owner, Subway can be a lucrative business, with the average outlet generating approximately $400,000 in annual revenue, as noted by Dr. Franchise<\/a>. The franchise fee to start a Subway is $15,000.<\/p>\n

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Subsequently, owners contribute 12% of weekly gross sales in royalties and advertising fees. After accounting for wages, fees, and franchise expenses, a typical Subway outlet averages $40,000 to $50,000 annually. Although Subway is often regarded as one of the most affordable franchises to establish, Business Insider<\/a> reported that in 2021, Subway’s franchise disclosure agreement increased significantly, from approximately $139,550 to $342,400 in 2020 to between $207,050 to $476,900 in 2021. Despite the higher costs, Subway franchises remained relatively inexpensive to start compared to McDonald’s, which required an initial investment of $1.3 million to $2.3 million.<\/p>\n

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Launching your own restaurant can be a risky venture if you lack the expertise to operate an eatery. For those entrepreneurs who have always appreciated a good meal and have aspired to own a restaurant, a franchise might seem like a secure choice. After all, with a large corporation providing support, supplies, location, and a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investing","category-shopping"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediaaccess.org.au\/resources\/pro-tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediaaccess.org.au\/resources\/pro-tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediaaccess.org.au\/resources\/pro-tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediaaccess.org.au\/resources\/pro-tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediaaccess.org.au\/resources\/pro-tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1556"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediaaccess.org.au\/resources\/pro-tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1607,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediaaccess.org.au\/resources\/pro-tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1556\/revisions\/1607"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediaaccess.org.au\/resources\/pro-tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediaaccess.org.au\/resources\/pro-tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediaaccess.org.au\/resources\/pro-tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediaaccess.org.au\/resources\/pro-tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}