Dive Brief:

• Subway will add a new menu category of footlong snacks, dubbed Sidekicks, beginning Jan. 22, the company said in a press release Thursday.
• The sandwich chain said it partnered with culinary teams at Focus Brands’ Cinnabon and Auntie Anne’s to create the Cinnabon Footlong Churro and Auntie Anne’s Footlong Pretzel. The menu also includes the Footlong Cookie, which Subway first tested on National Cookie Day in 2022 and 2023. 
• Subway began overhauling its menu in 2021 with its Eat Fresh Refresh. It later launched its Subway Series menu in 2022 and invested $80 million in equipment needed to add freshly sliced deli meat to its menu in 2023.

Dive Insight:

Menu crossovers could be an early benefit of Subway’s ongoing sale to Roark Capital, which also owns Focus Brands. The new snacks may help Subway grow the afternoon daypart, a time block that many other chains, including Starbucks, have targeted for traffic growth with new snack items. The afternoon snack daypart grew roughly a full percentage point within the past year, according to Technomic Ignite data.

The introduction of the snack category at Subway suggests the chain is emphasizing new menu items this year. It originally said it would add its Footlong Cookie to its permanent menu late last year after initial success as an LTO in 2022 when it opened a pop-up shop in Miami. That pop-up sold out of cookies in two hours. 

“The introduction of Sidekicks builds on six decades of equity and expertise in all things footlong,” Douglas Fry, president of Subway North America, said in a press release. “This whole new category on our menu offers Subway fans something they can't get anywhere else and kicks off a year of culinary innovation and delicious new menu items. 2024 may be the most exciting chapter yet in our growth story.”