Golden Arches' Reign to End

With 31,800 restaurants around the world, Subway, the sandwich fast-food restaurant, is projected to become the biggest chain of fast-food restaurants in the world. Though McDonald’s now has a total of 32,158 restaurants and far exceeds Subway in overall sales, for the moment Subway’s rate of growth is such that by the end of the month it will have more shops than Mickey D’s. Still, said Dennis Lombardi, vice president of food service at WD Partners, “you need about five or six Subways to equal one McDonald’s in terms of sales,” as the average U.S. McDonald’s had about $2.3 million in sales last year while the average Subway only made about $445,000.