Cousins Subs
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Cousins Subs | |
 |
|
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | Milwaukee, Wisconsin (1972) |
| Headquarters | Wisconsin area |
| Key people | Jim Sheppard (Co-Founder), Bill Specht (Co-Founder) |
| Industry | Restaurants |
| Products | Sandwiches Salads Other food products |
| Website | www.cousinssubs.com |
Cousins Subs was founded in 1972 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Cousins Subs is a national sub sandwich chain with stores throughout the Midwest and on the West Coast. Cousins Subs started in 1972, when two cousins from Atlantic City, William Specht and James Sheppard, saw the need for an East coast–style sub shop in their new hometown. They patterned their subs after the hoagie, grinder, hero and sub sandwiches they enjoyed back East.
They opened their first restaurant in Milwaukee, located at 60th Street and Silverspring Drive. That location closed after several years of successful operation. The oldest existing Cousins Subs is located on the corner of Brady Street and Farwell Avenue in Milwaukee. Cousins gained a reputation for having the best subs in Milwaukee because of their fresh baked bread and ample portions of meat and cheese. Cousins continued to open company-owned stores until 2004.
Until 1985 all Cousins Subs locations were company owned. The very first franchisee of Cousins Subs was James Valentine. He opened the franchise in 1985 at Loehmanns Plaza (Now called V.Richards Plaza) in Brookfield, Wisconsin. Located at the Southeast corner of the intersection of Calhoun Road and West Bluemound Road, the restaurant is still in business today, and hence is the oldest Cousins Subs franchise.
Cousins has seen a decline in sales since 2001 due in part to increased competition from Subway, Jimmy Johns, Quiznos, and other sandwich-based quick service establishments. Even though revenue was still declining during this period, Cousins continued to hire more executive and administrative personell and cut it's in-store staff. In October 2004, Cousins announced that it would be selling 32 of their 40 company owned stores to franchisees in order to adopt a more traditional franchise growth model.
Although the majority of franchises remain in Wisconsin, Cousins restaurants can be found in 12 states, including 13 stores in Arizona and locations in California and Texas.
