Who Makes Subway's Bread Dough?

The measure of a good sandwich depends largely on the bread — nobody knows that better than Subway, the popular sandwich chain whose hoagies have made headlines on more than one occasion. From being classed as confectionery in Ireland due to its high amount of sugar to inspiring petitions over questionable ingredients, Subway's bread has always been a hot topic. It's well-known that the chain bakes its bread in-store every day, but the dough itself is not made on site. So who makes it? Over the years, Subway has partnered with different companies to supply its dough; let's take a look at some that were acknowledged publicly.

In 2015, Subway gave a big shoutout to three companies that were credited with helping develop its bread: Lineage Logistics, Aryzta, and Southwest Baking. Lineage is primarily responsible for storing and transporting food in temperature-controlled conditions, but it also helped Subway with creating new bread types. Aryzta specializes in convenience bakery and primarily covers European and Asian markets, as well as Australia and New Zealand; as of 2023, it was still working with Subway and other big names, such as McDonald's and Aldi. Southwest Baking is, instead, a food processing plant. According to the company's website, it "manufactures frozen bread dough for a top quick serve restaurant," which is named as Subway on LinkedIn.

One fact about Subway is that it never gives up on its bread. When the pandemic halted the whole world in 2020, the chain found itself in a pickle given that its original business model centered around preparing orders directly in front of customers. All of a sudden, sandwiches needed to be made in-store, entrusted to a third-party delivery service, arrive all the way to the customer, and somehow still remain fresh. Subway promptly partnered with Aspire Bakeries (who has been supplying the chain's cookies across Australia and Asia since 2006) to formulate a bread dough that would stay fresh longer, despite the added delivery time — a solution that the bakery came up with in only five months.

Aside from partnering with companies that curate and improve Subway's bread dough, the chain has also partnered with several well-known brands to bring different types of bread into Subway stores. For example, in 2019, a partnership with King's Hawaiian saw the beloved Hawaiian rolls (a local favorite that eventually became an iconic staple) transformed into an 8-inch sandwich bread. Later, in 2021, Subway even teamed up with Hero Labs, a food tech company backed by Tom Brady, to add a 6-inch roll with one single gram of carbs into its lineup of bread options.