The company has 44,000 locations globally — more than any other retailer. The National Retail Federation put its US store count at nearly 27,000 as of 2016, compared to 17,500 for Yum Brands, which runs Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC, and the 14,000 locations for McDonald’s). The company said Wednesday it expects stores to close after it rolls out a revitalization plan, announced last summer, that will require franchise owners to invest more in their operations. All Subway stores are franchise owned, rather than owned by the company. The plans to revamp locations include adding self-service kiosks, more comfortable seating and Wi-Fi and USB charging ports. In February, Subway also announced plans for a loyalty program to win back customers and stem slumping sales. Subway’s stores count shrinks for the first time in company’s history. Store closings are new for Subway. It had a net loss of more than 350 US stores in 2016, the first year in the company’s history that it trimmed rather than increased its number of stores. The privately held company has yet to disclose its 2017 store count, but there were reports of hundreds of store closings. “Looking out over the next decade, we anticipate having a slightly smaller, but more profitable footprint in North America and a significantly larger footprint in the rest of the world,” the company said. Many of Subway’s locations are smaller compared to other fast food rivals. That’s one of the reasons there are so many of them — it’s much less expensive for a franchisee to open a Subway storefront rather than one for McDonald’s or Burger King. – Source: CNN Money.