New Delhi, April 6 -- Subway-the ubiquitous sandwich shop-is one of the top US restaurant chains by number of outlets. Yet its US business has been shrinking noticeably.

In 2024, over 600 Subway outlets were shut down. By December 2025, its total number of US outlets fell below 20,000 for the first time in twenty years.

This contraction reflects a combination of factors: intensifying competition, shifting consumer preferences, over-aggressive expansion in earlier years, and changing locational advantages.

The picture in India could not be more different.

Subway's first India outlet opened in a mall in New Delhi in 2001. By 2010, it had opened its hundredth outlet; by 2017, its 600th store. In 2026, it crossed the 1,000-store milestone...