IN NEED OF A HERO

Sales down, Subway brass scrambles for answers

For decades, the Subway sandwich chain was among the hottest restaurants in the world.

Its healthier-than-burgers menu, wallet-friendly $5 footlongs and go-anywhere store concept helped it grow from a small regional player into the world’s largest restaurant chain — whose 46,000 locations around the globe dwarf even McDonald’s and its 37,000 stores.

But in recent years, that growth engine has stalled. Several marketing snafus — from pitchman Jared Fogle pleading guilty to possessing child porn to a lawsuit claiming its footlong heroes measured just 11 inches — have turned off customers while rivals, like Jersey Mike’s, steal away customers.

Sales at the privately held chain have fallen in each of the past two years, according to financial statements reviewed by The Post, and management is scrambling for an answer.

Chief Executive Suzanne Greco is pushing plans to spruce up the interiors of Subway’s dated decor, invest in technology and roll out a customer-loyalty program.

But Subway ownership is on a totally different page.

Dr. Peter Buck, who lent his late pal Fred DeLuca $1,000 in 1965 to start the chain and who retains a 50 percent equity stake, would rather see Subway buy or develop a sub- brand to better battle upstart rivals like Jersey Mike’s, the reclusive co-founder told The Post.

“How about opening four brand-new sub-chains?” the rarely quoted Buck said in a telephone interview. He isn’t happy that same-store sales since 2013, according to Res- taurant Research LLC, have fallen a total of 13 percent.

Buck, 86, knows something has to be done as Subway faces the most daunting challenge in its 50 years.

Subway still controls 76 percent of the US sub sandwich market, according to Restaurant Research — but that is down from 82 percent in 2013.

But pushing through change will be tough. DeLuca died two years ago, and his 50 percent stake passed to his widow, Elizabeth, whose interest, according to Buck, is in maintaining the status quo and not spending money on expansion — be it in Subway or in a sub-brand.

That leaves Greco, the younger sister of DeLuca, handpicked by the late CEO to run the chain, caught in the middle — wanting to make changes but almost powerless to do so.

Greco, a former Subway purchasing agent and sandwich developer, owns no Subway stock. Putting further pressure on Greco is that Buck, who’s known the 59-year-old executive since she was in grade school, never saw her as an heir apparent, he told The Post.

Greco, like Buck, is rather press shy and rarely grants interviews. But earlier this month, after a Q&A at her alma mater, Sacred Heart University, in Fairfield, Conn., she spoke excitedly about renovating the stores and bringing more technology to the sandwich-ordering process.

“We have some beautiful new restaurants and are really excited about our new décor and technology,” Greco told the students at SHU.

Greco was also jazzed about the soon-to-launch customerloyalty program that, she hoped, could reignite sales.

But a longtime Subway franchisee told The Post that technical problems have long delayed the rollout of the loyalty program and that there is a growing concern among franchisees that management is not up to the task of turning around the business.

A Subway spokeswoman declined comment.