Subway hires former Burger King executive as its new CEO
By Dee-ann Durbin
FILE - A Subway restaurant location is seen on June 6, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
Subway has hired a former Burger King executive as its new CEO.
The Miami-based sandwich chain said Monday that Jonathan Fitzpatrick will join the company on July 28.
Fitzpatrick is the first CEO hired since Subway was bought by the private equity firm Roark Capital in 2024. And Roark didn’t have to look far to find him.
Since 2012, Fitzpatrick has been the president and CEO of Driven Brands, which is also owned by Roark. Driven Brands is the parent company of auto service brands like Meineke Car Care Centers and Maaco.
Before joining Driven Brands, Fitzpatrick held multiple senior leadership positions at Burger King, including executive vice president.
Subway was founded in 1965 and was still owned by its founding families when it was purchased by Roark. It’s one of the world’s largest restaurant chains, with nearly 37,000 outlets in more than 100 countries.
But in recent years, Subway has been losing sales to fast-growing rivals like Jersey Mike’s and Firehouse Subs. The company tried to catch up. In 2022, it announced a line of chef-developed sandwiches after finding that customers were tiring of Subway’s traditional model of letting customers build their own subs.
When Roark bought Subway, it said it planned to continue to modernize restaurants and expand internationally. It left in place Subway’s CEO John Chidsey, who was the first nonfamily member to lead Subway when he joined the company in 2019. But Chidsey retired late last year.
Roark, which is known for its expertise in restaurant management, backs two holding companies that own multiple restaurant chains: Inspire Brands, the parent of Arby’s, Dunkin’, Jimmy John’s, Sonic and Buffalo Wild Wings; and GoTo Foods, which owns Auntie Anne’s, Carvel, Cinnabon and Jamba.
In June, Roark bought Dave’s Hot Chicken in a deal valued at $1 billion.
A big-screen adaptation of the anime “Chainsaw Man” has topped the North American box office, beating a Springsteen biopic and “Black Phone 2.” The movie earned $17.25 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. “Black Phone 2” fell to second place with $13 million. Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million, respectively. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is based on the manga series about a demon hunter. It's another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released a “Demon Slayer” film last month that debuted to a record $70 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility. The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports on Sunday morning soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. The hold on planes taking off for LAX lasted an hour and 45 minutes and didn't appear to cause continued problems. The FAA said staffing shortages also delayed planes headed to Washington, Chicago and Newark, New Jersey on Sunday.
Boeing workers at three Midwest plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed have voted to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a strike that started almost three months ago. The strike by about 3,200 machinists at the plants in the Missouri cities of St. Louis and St. Charles, and in Mascoutah, Illinois, is smaller in scale than a walkout last year by 33,000 Boeing workers who assemble commercial jetliners. The president of the International Association of Machinists says Sunday's outcome shows Boeing hasn't adequately addressed wages and retirement benefits. Boeing says Sunday's vote was close with 51% of union members opposing the revised offer.
