Pizza is coming to Subway. By June, the largest restaurant franchise in the country will add thick-crust style personal pizza to the menu at 13,000 U.S. stores. The introduction will place even more heat on Pizza Hut and Domino’s Pizza, both of which saw sales cool off in 2006.
As the No. 1 player in the sandwich chain category, Subway has been trying to incorporate pizza onto its menu for about 10 years. Logistical problems, such as an oven that “took up eight feet of counter space and a separate table for fresh dough,” slowed the introduction, said Cindy Kopazna, project leader for new product development at Subway, Milford, Conn.
Speed ovens, which were installed nationally in 2005, have allowed Subway to streamline the process. Some nontraditional locations at hospitals and airports now offer pizza, but only a few traditional stores have had it during a trial period.
An employee at a test store located in the East Village section of New York City said they only sold two pizzas the first day of the test in late March, but are now are up about 25 a day. The biggest problem: patrons don’t know about the product despite a prominent sign on the menu board, he said.
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