Subway India stops free cheese slice option, offers sauce instead as inflation bites
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American chain Subway now charges 30 rupees (49 Singapore cents) extra for the cheese slice in most sandwiches.
PHOTO: SUBWAY INDIA/FACEBOOK
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NEW DELHI – Subway sandwiches in India will no longer come with the option of a free cheese slice following revisions to its menu that analysts regarded as being more about cost-cutting than just a matter of taste.
American chain Subway is one of the largest restaurant franchisers in India, with around 800 outlets. It now charges 30 rupees (50 Singapore cents) for the cheese slice in most sandwiches, but is offering a free “cheezy” sauce instead.
Rising prices of ingredients, including dairy products, have put global fast-food chains in India under pressure to trim costs while keeping customers satisfied.
Domino’s promotion price for its cheapest pizza is just 60 US cents (80 Singapore cents) in India, where its franchisee has publicly flagged concerns over a 40 per cent surge in the price of cheese during the financial year that ended in March.
Many Subway and McDonald’s outlets in India have also removed tomatoes from their menus
India has resorted to importing tomatoes from Nepal to ease the shortage.
The cheese sauce now available for free at Subway India was “developed for qualitative reasons alone”, said Everstone Group’s Culinary Brands, which manages the supply chain for all 800 outlets and is the master franchisee for around 200.
The qualitative change clearly is not to everyone’s taste.
Subway has “replaced the cheese slice with liquid cheese blend... You just lost a loyal customer”, one unimpressed customer, Ms Sumit Arora, wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
A Subway store manager in New Delhi told Reuters the new cheese sauce costs 400 rupees per kg. Market prices show cheese slices typically cost around 700 rupees per kg.
A cheese slice, said Culinary Brands marketing head Mayur Hola, “can be added on at a small cost”.
“Ingredient costs are not something we comment on... This is simply an upgrade to make our subs better.”
Asked about the Subway move, Mr Karan Taurani, a consumer discretionary analyst at India’s Elara Capital, said elevated cheese, grain and vegetable prices have pushed restaurants to come up with “innovative” strategies.
“It is a way of putting inflationary pressure on the customer rather than going for a blanket price hike,” he said.
A Subway sandwich costs about 200 to 300 rupees in India. If a customer adds the cheese slice, the sandwich will cost up to 15 per cent more.
India’s central bank this week raised its inflation forecast for the current fiscal year to 5.4 per cent, citing pressures from food prices. REUTERS
