A second Subway Sandwich Store franchisee with a number of shops has filed for chapter in as many months. This time, the Subway franchisee is a multi-store operator in North Dakota. Right here’s what it’s essential to know in regards to the chapter and its influence on Subway shops.
What’s occurred?
In line with papers submitted to the US Chapter Court docket for the District of North Dakota dated July 21, a Subway franchisee by the title of Cherry Butte Firm has filed for Chapter 11 chapter safety.
The chapter submitting follows simply over a month after one other Subway franchisee, MTF Subs, filed for bankruptcy. MTF Subs operated 43 Subway shops.
In line with Cherry Butte Firm’s chapter submitting, the corporate has complete property price about $19,000 whereas its complete debt liabilities equal round $1.8 million.
The document reveals that quite a few the corporate’s collectors have positioned liens on the corporate’s bank card and DoorDash receipts, that means the revenue Cherry Butte Firm’s Subway shops absorb isn’t distributed to the corporate, however as a substitute to its collectors who maintain the liens. This successfully shuts off Cherry Butte Firm’s money movement.
Whereas the submitting doesn’t say exactly why Cherry Butte Firm’s Subway retailer revenues have been falling, the submitting does present that they’ve.
In calendar yr 2024, the corporate’s shops took in $2.67 million in gross income. However in 2025, that gross income declined to $2.34 million. For its present 2026 yr, the court docket submitting reveals that the corporate’s shops have a complete gross income of $1.15 million, as of the date of the submitting.
The place are the franchisee’s shops situated?
Data present that Cherry Butte Firm operates three Subway shops, all situated in Dickinson, North Dakota. These places are:
- 455 twelfth Road W., Dickinson, North Dakota 58601
- 401 West Villard, Suite 106, Dickinson, North Dakota 58601
- 2456 third West, Dickinson, North Dakota 58601
Will the Subway shops be closing?
As of now, the court docket paperwork considered by Quick Firm don’t recommend Cherry Butte Firm shall be closing its franchised Subway places. Certainly, Chapter 11 chapter is often undertaken by firms that hope to reorganize and proceed working.
At the moment, Subway’s retailer locator device reveals the three shops listed with their normal working hours.
Why are so many quick meals franchisees submitting for chapter?
In latest months, it’s not simply Cherry Butte Firm and MTF Subs which have filed for chapter. And it’s not simply Subway franchisees both.
In 2026 alone, franchisees working Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Carl’s Jr., and Applebee’s have all filed for chapter.
Whereas the precise causes behind every chapter shall be distinctive to that firm, usually, fast-food and casual-food chains have been struggling in recent times with inflationary strain, falling foot visitors, and customers chopping again on discretionary spending as costs proceed to rise.
What does this imply for Subway?
As for what these franchisee bankruptcies imply for Subway, that’s laborious to say. The sub sandwich firm was taken non-public by Roark Capital Group in 2024 and now not publicly experiences its financials on any common foundation.
Nevertheless, it’s doubtless that almost all fast-food chains, Subway included, are going through the identical financial pressures almost all fast-food chains have confronted in recent times: inflation, falling foot visitors, and extra discretionary diners.
Subway says it at present has greater than 35,000 independently owned and operated shops around the globe.
