Footlong backlash spurs Subway exit
Irate Subway franchisees have won their first scalp.
The sandwich shop’s head of marketing resigned on Monday, just days after The Post reported the country’s largest restaurant chain planned to revive next month a $4.99 footlong promotion.
The promotion inflamed a nationwide revolt by the franchise owners of Subway’s 40,000 units. The owners have been hurting financially the past few years owing to a onetwo punch of a 25 percent drop in traffic coupled with heavy discounting — which ate into already diminished profits.
After The Post reported exclusively that the company’s turnaround plan included a $4.99 footlong, dozens of franchisees added their names to an existing petition asking for the promotion to be dropped.
But on Monday, it was Karlin Linhardt, senior VP of marketing for North America, who was dropped, The Post has learned.
“Most franchisees are not fans of Karlin,” a franchisee organizer told The Post.
The Milford, Conn., company confirmed that Linhardt — who is believed to have orchestrated the discount strategy — and Subway have parted company. “Karlin Linhardt is no longer at the company as of today,” a person answering the phone at Subway HQ said.
A Subway spokeswoman declined to comment on whether it will go forward with the controversial promotion.
In April, Subway hired Linhardt to head its North American marketing in an effort to revamp America’s biggest restaurant chain.
Perhaps half of Subway’s 40,000 stores presently are losing money, the franchisee organizer told The Post.
From 1995 to 2005, Linhardt was a McDonald’s marketing executive. In recent years, McDonald’s has gained market share from Subway by dropping prices and introducing a dollar menu.