Subway In Citos Long Queues, Who Is The Conglomerate Fred DeLuca, The Owner Of The Sandwich Restaurant, Who Has Assets Of Rp. 35 Trillion

Restoran Subway. (FotoL: Instagram @subway)

JAKARTA - There is an interesting sight at the Subway Indonesia restaurant located in Cilandak Town Square (Citos), South Jakarta. The sandwich restaurant was crammed with shoppers since Friday, October 15, until there was a long queue.

According to a national online media report, even the management had to temporarily close the restaurant during the day and reopen it at 15.00

For some Indonesian people, the name Subway may still be foreign. Almost certainly, the names KFC or McDonalds are more familiar to hear than Subway even though they are both fast food restaurants.

However, this sandwich restaurant from the US itself is one of the largest fast food restaurant franchises in the world as a sandwich provider. This restaurant is famous for its large sandwiches but sold at quite affordable prices.

As for Subway's success in finally being able to open branches in various countries, it cannot be separated from the cold hands of its founder, the late Fred DeLuca. Subway itself was actually founded by DeLuca out of necessity, at which time he needed money to go to college.

The man who was born in New York, October 3, 1947, founded Subway at a very young age, namely 17 years old, or when he had just graduated from high school.

It started in 1965, when the son of the Italian-American couple had just graduated from high school and wanted to continue his dream to study health. But unfortunately, DeLuca did not have enough money so he was forced to find a source of income.

Luckily, he has a friend who has been close to him since he was a child, namely Peter Buck who is a physicist. DeLuca first met Buck when he was 10 years old. It was this childhood friend who later became DeLuca's partner in founding Subway.

On that occasion, Buck intends to help DeLuca by lending him 1,000 US dollars or Rp. 14.6 million (to be used to start a business. At that time, DeLuca had the idea to create a restaurant that provides healthy fast food and is not fattening).

Finally, with this capital, DeLuca took Buck to open his first restaurant called Pete's Super Submarines in Bridgeport, Connecticut. This restaurant became the forerunner of Subway in the future.

Subway also continued to reap success into the 21st century, until September 14, 2015, DeLuca died at the age of 67 due to leukemia he had suffered since 2013. At that time he was recorded to have a wealth of 2.5 billion US dollars or equivalent to Rp. trillion.

Even without DeLuca, Subway now has 41,600 branches worldwide with a turnover of 10.4 billion US dollars or equivalent to Rp. 152 trillion per year. Its own employees have reached 30,000 people in all branches.