Subway is now doing jacket potatoes?
It sure is. The sandwich giant announced earlier this week that it is trialling jacket potatoes in 170 of its UK stores. The initiative - which is inevitably sub-branded Spudway - will see participating Subways bake jacket potatoes in store daily with topping options including tuna mayonnaise, taco beef and chicken tikka. Just like the chain’s subs, the spuds will be fully customisable.
What’s behind Subway’s potato pivot?
The UK is in the midst of a ‘jacket potato renaissance’ thanks to the success of Spudman, and Subway clearly believes it can have a piece of the action.
Wait. Who?
You’re obviously not on social media much. Staffordshire-based street food trader Spudman, real name Ben Newman, has amassed a huge following on TikTok with POV videos of him preparing and serving jacket potatoes from his food van.
Is that it?
Pretty much. But against a backdrop of Trump, war, surging nationalism and climate catastrophe there’s something oddly therapeutic about watching a pleasant, spikey-haired man shift large quantities of spuds in Tamworth town centre. There’s jeopardy too. Will the customer opt for beans and cheese or just cheese? Will they get their spud for free? Will anyone ever decline butter? What will happen if they do? It’s compelling stuff.
I’m hooked. But jacket potatoes are hardly new…
Very true. The branded jacket spud market was a thing in the UK once upon a time. Founded in Edinburgh in the mid 1970s, Spudulike had around 40 sites in its heyday but collapsed in 2019. Shortly afterwards, potato supplier Albert Bartlett acquired the brand and worked with celebrity chef James Martin to revive eight of its sites and even open a few new locations. At one point there were close to a dozen stores trading under the SpudULike by James Martin name but the brand is now little more than a brief Wikipedia entry with all of its locations having quietly shuttered over the past few years. A number of operators have made the model work overseas, however, including Jacked Potato Bar and Potato Coop in the US and Australia Spudbar (the latter has grown to over 20 locations). It should also be noted that jacket potatoes are a mainstay in cafes across the country.
Is Subway likely to get any traction with Spudway?
It’s hard to say. While jacket potatoes offer a great margin and fit very neatly into Subway’s existing operational setup, eating a jacket potato on the go is much harder than a sandwich and they are also trickier to deliver. Subway obviously thinks it’s in with a shot though and its tuber trail at 170 locations suggests Spudway is intended to be more than a quick PR cash-in. As a Subway spokesperson says: “If our guests love it, this could be just the beginning”.
And all thanks to a bloke in a trailer…
Yep. Pretty much single handedly, Spudman has revived a moribund category and found considerable fame doing so (last summer he rocked up at the UK premier of Deadpool & Wolverine to serve potatoes to stars Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman), so credit where credit is due. Although allowing people to put tuna mayo and baked beans on the same spud is tantamount to a war crime. Sorry Ben.
