Subway, the US fast food sandwich franchise, is launching a BBQ beef ‘burnt ends’ sub in the UK and Ireland as part of a bid to exploit the trend for American Barbecue.
The new sub, one of two due to be introduced this year, is made of lean cuts beef, which are slow cooked and marinated in barbecue sauce, and will be launched next week in stores for a limited eight week period, before being considered as a permanent addition on the menu.
The business is also looking to expand its breakfast range, following on from the introduction of poached eggs in its mega melt breakfast sub, one of several product ideas the UK and Ireland business is developing as part of its New Product Development (NPD).
The year-long NPD process begins with 25-30 product ideas, which are taste tested on 14,000 people, before being whittled down to three or four and regionally trialled in some 100 stores.
To be considered a success, the new products must make up at least 4% of sales from the c22 strong sub menu.
Roger Lord, senior national marketing manager, said: “It’s tapping to that US trend of slow cooked barbecue food.
“It’s something we’ve been looking at for a while but we believe we’ll be the first big QSR brand to launch this product in the UK.
“The slow cooking process produces caramelised burnt edges, and that helps create the flavour of the product.”
Marketing director Sacha Clark added: “We have always had New Product Development but we’re taking it to the next level.”
