From Subway to sushi, pies and cinnamon buns

Big quick-service restaurant (QSR) franchise brands with strongly systemised training and development programmes can be the ideal breeding ground for new franchisees, master licensees and franchisors.

McDonald's are renowned for bringing staff along the path from crew members to franchisees. It seems that Subway also provides the ideal training ground for franchisors, as several former franchisees and business development colleagues are proving.

Stanley Greene, a Subway franchisee since 1996 and for 20+ years a Business Development Agent for Subway in New Zealand, is now in charge of bringing Australian success story Sushi Sushi to New Zealand. “We’re incredibly excited to bring Stanley on as our Master Franchisee for New Zealand,” said Stephen Anders, CEO of Sushi Sushi. “Stanley has decades of proven business growth success and his vision aligns seamlessly with our commitment to innovation."

Stan's former Subway colleague Brett Higgins also became a Subway franchisee in the mid-90s, before serving two decades as a Development Agent in Australia. Brett is managing director of Boxx Brands, which owns Australia and New Zealand-based Jesters Pies, the Western Australia franchise Croissant Express and, most recently, became the WA master licence for Cinnabon, the American cinnamon roll giant founded in 1985, which is now in 50 countries.

And in a strange twist of fate, Kathan Parikh, the master licensee who recently brought the hugely popular Cinnabon brand to New Zealand was also a graduate of the Subway training programmes, managing an Auckland Subway store for five and a half years as a young student before qualifying as a mechanical engineer.