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Subway plans massive Sweden expansion

US sandwich chain Subway, recently crowned the largest restaurant chain in the world, is planning an extensive expansion in Sweden, the firm has confirmed.

Published: 11 March 2011 14:53 CET

Subway plans massive Sweden expansion

“According to strategy plan there will be around 240 restaurants in Sweden before the end of 2015 and I am confident that our team in Sweden will achieve or even surpass this goal,” Fred DeLuca, Subway’s founder and president, said in a statement on Friday.

Subway, which was founded by DeLuca as a 17-year-old in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1965, recently surpassed fellow US fast food provider McDonald’s to become the largest restaurant chain worldwide.

From humble beginnings in the US northeast, the firm has grown to 34,246 outlets in 95 countries.

The plans for Subway’s Sweden expansion were presented on Thursday on the first day of Fred DeLuca’s three day long trip to the country.

Since opening its first franchise in Stockholm in 1999, Subway currently operates 81 restaurants across Sweden, a figure which DeLuca hopes to triple in less than five years.

While most Subway restaurants are concentrated in Sweden’s larger cities, plans call for the chain to increase its foot print in other regions as well.

With the Swedish appetite for fast food is reported to be on the rise and Subway now plans to cash in on this trend.

“Swedes eat more fast food than ever and we are seeing increased demand for a fresher alternative to more traditional fast food,” Michael Von Bargen of Subway Sweden said.

“We have set an ambitious but realistic goals and to achieve this, we are currently working hard to recruit ambitious franchisees and to identify new strategic locations to establish our business.”

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OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

The Local’s guide to tipping in Sweden is clear: tip for good service if you want to, but don’t feel the pressure: where servers in the US, for instance, rely on tips to live, waiters in Sweden have collectively bargained salaries with long vacations and generous benefits.

SEE ALSO: What’s the tipping etiquette in Sweden?

But there are signs that this is changing, and the change is being accelerated by card machines. Now, many machines offer three preset gratuity percentages, usually starting with five percent and going up to fifteen or twenty. Previously they just asked the customer to fill in the total amount they wanted to pay.

This subtle change to a user interface sends a not-so-subtle message to customers: that tipping is expected and that most people are probably doing it. The button for not tipping is either a large-lettered ‘No Tip’ or a more subtle ‘Fortsätt’ or ‘Continue’ (it turns out you can continue without selecting a tip amount, but it’s not immediately clear to the user).

I’ll confess, when I was first presented with this I was mildly irked: I usually tip if I’ve had table service, but waiting staff are treated as professionals and paid properly, guaranteed by deals with unions; menu prices are correspondingly high. The tip was a genuine token of appreciation.

But when I tweeted something to this effect (a tweet that went strangely viral), the responses I got made me think. Many people pointed out that the restaurant trade in Sweden is under enormous pressure, with rising costs, the after-effects of Covid and difficulties recruiting. And as Sweden has become more cosmopolitain, adding ten percent to the bill comes naturally to many.

Boulebar, a restaurant and bar chain with branches around Sweden and Denmark, had a longstanding policy of not accepting tips at all, reasoning that they were outdated and put diners in an uncomfortable position. But in 2021 CEO Henrik Kruse decided to change tack:

“It was a purely financial decision. We were under pressure due to Covid, and we had to keep wages down, so bringing back tips was the solution,” he said, adding that he has a collective agreement and staff also get a union bargained salary, before tips.

Yet for Kruse the new machines, with their pre-set tipping percentages, take things too far:

“We don’t use it, because it makes it even clearer that you’re asking for money. The guest should feel free not to tip. It’s more important for us that the guest feels free to tell people they’re satisfied.”

But for those restaurants that have adopted the new interfaces, the effect has been dramatic. Card processing company Kassacentralen, which was one of the first to launch this feature in Sweden, told Svenska Dagbladet this week that the feature had led to tips for the average establishment doubling, with some places seeing them rise six-fold.

Even unions are relaxed about tipping these days, perhaps understanding that they’re a significant extra income for their members. Union representatives have often in the past spoken out against tipping, arguing that the practice is demeaning to staff and that tips were spread unevenly, with staff in cafés or fast food joints getting nothing at all. But when I called the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Union (HRF), a spokesman said that the union had no view on the practice, and it was a matter for staff, business owners and customers to decide.

So is tipping now expected in Sweden? The old advice probably still stands; waiters are still not as reliant on tips as staff in many other countries, so a lavish tip is not necessary. But as Swedes start to tip more generously, you might stick out if you leave nothing at all.

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