Subway has unveiled Blueprint, a new restaurant design and menu model that every new and remodelled site in Europe, the Middle East and Africa will follow from 1 January 2027. The UK is one of the first two markets with sites in the new format, and the brand plans to nearly double its regional footprint within five years.
Subway announced the programme on 8 October 2026 from Amsterdam. The brand operates more than 35,000 restaurants worldwide, all of them independently owned and run by franchisees, which puts it among the largest of the fast food brands recruiting UK operators. In the UK and Ireland, Subway recruits franchisees through a dedicated franchising site.
The first Blueprint restaurants opened in summer 2026 in the Netherlands and the UK. Subway says the launch follows a year of positive sales and restaurant growth across the region, without publishing the figures.
What the Blueprint format changes
The format has three parts. The restaurant itself gets a refreshed design built around self-order kiosks and the Subway app, with an extended menu that adds breakfast and a coffee offer made with 100% Arabica beans, moving it onto ground held by the coffee brands recruiting in the UK. A Grab and Go range targets fast-moving sites such as transport hubs.
The third part, Subway After Dark, is an evening offer with warmer lighting, a night-time playlist and a late menu that includes foot-long pizzas, loaded waffle fries and mac and cheese. It is being piloted in the Netherlands before a wider rollout.
Tracy Gehlan, president of Subway EMEA, said: “Guests want to eat their way, on their own schedule, and Blueprint is how we deliver on that.” She added: “For our franchisees, it means stronger restaurant economics and a stronger brand built for the long term.”
What it means for UK franchisees
From 1 January 2027, the new standard applies to every new Subway restaurant and every remodel in the region. For UK franchisees, that sets the specification for any new site they open and for any refurbishment of an existing one.
Subway has not published the cost of a Blueprint fit-out, nor who carries it, nor whether existing sites will have to convert by a set date, all of which would be governed by the franchise agreement rather than by the announcement.
The release presents the format as a way to add trading occasions, from breakfast to late evening. Subway’s UK franchise recruitment site does not publish fees on its landing page, so the cost of joining the network on the new format is not public either, leaving the benchmarks in what it costs to open a franchise in the UK as the nearest comparison.
Good to know
Subway’s EMEA region, as the brand defines it, also covers India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The five-year growth target therefore applies to a wider area than Europe alone.
A five-year expansion plan
Subway says it aims to nearly double its footprint across the region over the next five years, working with “strong operators and franchise partners”, the model behind most brands taking on partners in the UK.The release gives no current restaurant count for the region and no split by country, so the number of UK openings behind the target is not known.
A new campaign, Get Your Own Way, is running across the region alongside the format. The next signals to watch are the first UK conversions under the 2027 standard and any figures Subway publishes on how the pilot sites are trading.
