The CEO Magazine Asia - February 2018

business partners in the field flow all the way

up to head office. Since many of the Subway

franchisees across Asia–Pacific are still at the

very early stages of brand development, that

creates a unique window of opportunity

for Pavel.

“The challenge is to be able to choose

the best ideas out of the multitude we get

on a regular basis and harness that creativity,

rolling out these new ideas across individual

markets and then the whole region,” he says.

The best example is India where there

is a large number of people who prefer a

vegetarian diet. Half of the menu in Subway’s

Indian stores is filled with vegetarian options.

That menu is a case where “innovation

comes from the field”, Pavel comments.

“India developed those ideas, those new,

unique India-specific options. Since then,

it has become a regional lab. Some of

those ideas have now been rolled out across

Asia–Pacific,” he says. “That’s why we are

relying heavily on our business and supply

chain partners to share their insights with

us. They help us understand what will fly

if we think about meal combos, where we

“The US and Canada have approximately 2,500

food service establishments per million capita,

but in Asian markets like Thailand or Japan,

that figure is around 7,000 to 8,000.”

Half page advert

Bakers Circle India

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