Punjab to get world’s first all-vegetarian Subway outlet

JALANDHAR: Subway, the sandwich giant and world’s biggest restaurant chain with 37,000 outlets across the globe, is now ready to roll out its first all-vegetarian outlet. A private university in Jalandhar has convinced the US-based foot-long franchisor on the benefits of vegetarianism . This would be the second global restaurant chain to have turned vegetarian after Pizza Hut in Gujarat.

Jalandhar-based Lovely Professional University (LPU), run by a Hindu Mittal family known for promoting vegetarian meals on the campus, inked the deal with Subway in November last year. The all-veg outlet will open on September 4, a Tuesday when most Hindus avoid eating meat.

“Our university promotes healthy eating for its students and we as a brand are known for our fresh and low-fat sandwiches and salads. It was a natural fit for Subway to be present here,” said LPU vice-chancellor Ashok Mittal. This will be a marked change in form for the company that has established very popular meat-based subways (a variation sandwich) and has only two vegetarian products in its American and European menus.

“We as a brand are always sensitive to the requirements of the markets that we are in. India as a country has a large vegetarian population and right from the beginning of the brand’s presence in India, we have had separate counters for our vegetarian and non-vegetarian sandwiches . In reviewing the requirements of the university campus and the customer base, we have created an all-veg menu for our Subway outlet at LPU,” Chetan Arora, development agent, Subway India, told TOI. At present, Subway has 280 outlets in India. None of them sells beef and all of them have entirely separate counters serving six vegetarian preparations such as chickpeas, aloo patty, veggi shammi, paneer-based salads and so on.

Faced with thousands of consumers begging for more meatless options and organisations like People for Ethical Treatment of Animals ( PETA) running Compassion Over Killing campaigns, many restaurant chains including Pizza Hut in Gujarat have turned meatless in the past.