Fred DeLuca

“If someone wants to eat healthy, they can do that and get the sandwich exactly right. I'm so pleased we're able to influence so many people and their eating habits.”

“When you're invested in your own business, you're going to run it better. When people are financially responsible for whether their store succeeds, they're going to have that kind of entrepreneurial spirit that's harder to get if headquarters is running things.”

“We find that no matter what country we're in, if we hit the right economic notes and appeal to the mass market, we're able to build the business very, very rapidly.”

“A lot of stuff happens daily when you're running a company like Subway. If you get too happy about some things or too unhappy about others, you get worn out. It's best if you can pace yourself a little bit more.”

“I know a lot of people at some point in their business careers decide they'll just cash in and do something else, but for some reason, I've never had that feeling.”

“Profit or perish... There are only two ways to make money: increase sales and decrease costs.”

“I don't have much of a bucket list. I don't have a lot of needs and desires.”

“We're very much in the people business in that there are two important groups you have to work with: customers and employees.”

“If I were in charge of the government, I would index the minimum wage to inflation, so that way, everybody knows what they can count on.”

“You have to be able to communicate the vision to the people in your organization so that they know where and how they should direct themselves on a day-to-day basis.”

“From my point of view, my job is just to work hard for our franchisees, so they can maintain the position they're in, and to grow market share.”

“If I'm spending time on something, I may as well do good as opposed to average.”

“You could have everything right but be in the wrong place. You think your business is no good, but really, the problem is your place is no good.”

“You start a business, and you really don't have much of a budget.”

“After 39 years of business, I'm still learning. I go through this every year -identifying new strategies that are extremely important.”

“I made the first sandwich before entering college.”

“The United States is a huge market, and once you get rolling, you can replicate that model over and over pretty easily. Your supply lines are taken care of. You don't have technicians to deal with. You've got your customer base.”

“For a franchise system to work well, you really need people with an entrepreneurial mind-set because, while you have a large, overarching system that everybody has to work with, a lot of local issues have to be handled.”

“I went to school because I was supposed to. I did pre-med because my mum thought it was a good idea.”

“We give great value for our franchisees: They can build a store for well under $200,000. And we have extremely simple operating systems. The preparation is mostly done in front of the customer. That simplicity is really what attracts our Subway franchise. You see it, and you can do it.”