Report: new Subway CEO moving some Milford HQ jobs to Miami

Subway’s new CEO is moving some corporate staff to an office in the Miami-area where he lives, raising questions about the company’s Milford headquarters.

Subway confirmed a Thursday report by the New York Post that it is moving an unspecified number of Milford staff south, including managers in marketing, culinary and global strategy. The New York Post reported there will be an unspecified number of job cuts.

The report comes on the heels of 500 layoffs at Subway last year during the pandemic from a Milford work force of about 1,200 people at the start of 2020.

Founder Fred DeLuca, who built Subway into one of Connecticut’s most famous brands, died in Florida in September 2015.

In November 2019, Subway hired CEO John Chidsey as the permanent replacement for Suzanne Greco, who took over as CEO in 2015 in place of DeLuca, her brother. Chidsey led Burger King between 2006 and 2010.

Chidsey has a home in Coral Gables, Fla., according to the report.

Subway did not provide additional details immediately Friday in response to a Hearst Connecticut query, with a spokesperson forwarding a corporate statement that the “majority of the company’s workforce remains at our Milford … headquarters” and that the relocation allows Subway to collaborate more closely with the Independent Purchasing Cooperative based in Miami, which supplies Subway restaurants.

Chidsey took the Subway job with the central task of revamping Subway’s appeal, as Jersey Mike’s Subs gains steam and the fast-food old guard of McDonald’s and Burger King expand menus and redesign restaurants.

But the job quickly morphed into crisis planning as the COVID-19 pandemic slammed the food sector. Chidsey told NBC’s Today last May that about 18 percent of Subway’s U.S. locations closed during the first wave of the pandemic, largely those located in malls, college campuses and other sites subject to mandatory closures.

“A new team basically came to Subway in the last year,” Chidsey said in response to a question on the layoffs after he took the job. “We were already underway with restructuring and making the company more entrepreneurial, making it more efficient, so all the plans that we had really were laid well before coronavirus. I will be honest — coronavirus caused us to move up one or two of our staged moves.

“I think Subway will actually do quite well in this environment,” Chidsey added. “We have such a smaller footprint than our traditional [quick service restaurant] competitors, and because of that we can make money at a much lower sales level than a lot of our competitors.”

Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman