Planet Sub

Planet Sub franchise began its story not in a corporate boardroom but in a college town — Lawrence, Kansas, in 1979 — when the original Yello Sub sandwich store opened its doors and started building what would become one of the Midwest's most distinctive fast-casual sandwich concepts. Founders Jeff Klusman and Sean Kelly took that original made-from-scratch philosophy and transformed it into a scalable franchise model, opening the first Planet Sub franchise location in Overland Park, Kansas, in 1998 and formally launching franchising operations in 2002 and 2003. Today, the company is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, and operates exclusively within the United States, with a total footprint of 42 units as of 2026, including 14 franchised locations and a growing pipeline of over 80 stores in development across the country. Owner Kelly Klusman leads the brand alongside Director of Franchising Ryan Joy and Director of Marketing Tyler Cordel, a lean but operationally focused leadership structure that reflects the brand's emphasis on simplicity and consistency. Planet Sub has earned recognition from QSR Magazine as both "One to Watch" and a "Top Franchise Deal," and the Franchise Business Review ranked it among the "Best of the Best: Top 40 Food Franchises in America" based on franchisee satisfaction data — a meaningful distinction in an industry where franchisee-franchisor relationship quality is a leading indicator of system health. The brand differentiates itself through a commitment to oven-baked bread mixed, rolled, and baked from scratch inside every single location, daily slicing of all meats and cheeses, scratch-made sauces, and a menu of over 45 unique sandwich choices. For franchise investors evaluating opportunities in the $23.6 billion U.S. sub sandwich market, Planet Sub presents a brand with three decades of operational history, a proven scratch-cooking model, and an active national expansion agenda that warrants structured due diligence.

The U.S. sub sandwich franchise industry generated $23.6 billion in market size in 2022 and experienced a 4.5 percent market size growth rate in the same year, reflecting durable consumer demand for fast, affordable, and customizable protein-forward meals. That growth operates within the broader context of the global full-service restaurant market, which multiple independent research firms estimate in the range of $1.59 trillion to $1.65 trillion in 2025, with projected growth to approximately $2.05 trillion by 2035 at a compound annual growth rate of roughly 2.6 percent. The U.S. full-service restaurant segment specifically is projected to grow at a CAGR of 3.5 percent from 2025 through 2035, driven by a convergence of structural consumer trends that disproportionately benefit fresh-casual sandwich concepts. Chief among these trends is the health and wellness movement: nearly 40 percent of consumers are actively seeking gluten-free, vegan, and organic dining options, creating demand for restaurant formats built around fresh, minimally processed ingredients — precisely the value proposition Planet Sub has operated around since 1979. A second major tailwind is the casualization of dining, with casual dining restaurants currently commanding a 72 percent market share of the full-service restaurant landscape due to their broad menu variety and adaptable price points. Technology integration is also reshaping the competitive landscape, with AI-driven menu recommendations, contactless payment systems, and delivery platform integration becoming baseline consumer expectations rather than differentiators. The sub sandwich category benefits from a relatively fragmented competitive field outside of the one or two dominant national players, meaning well-differentiated regional and emerging brands with strong unit economics and genuine product quality have real opportunity to capture share from consumers who are increasingly skeptical of mass-market sandwich chains and willing to pay a modest premium for scratch-made quality.

The Planet Sub franchise investment begins with a franchise fee of $26,750, a figure that sits below the industry median for fast-casual restaurant franchise fees and reflects the brand's stated commitment to accessible entry for qualified operators. Total investment to open a Planet Sub location ranges from $78,000 on the low end to $300,000 on the high end, a spread driven by variables including real estate condition, geographic market, existing build-out quality, equipment procurement, and initial inventory positioning. For context, the brand's own franchise disclosure materials have at various points cited an investment range of $182,500 to $447,000, suggesting the low-end figure in the current data reflects specific conversion scenarios or non-traditional site configurations where significant build-out costs are avoided. Planet Sub offers a 20 percent discount on the franchise fee for qualifying military veterans, a meaningful concession that reduces the initial fee to approximately $21,400 for eligible applicants. Prospective franchisees should plan for a minimum of $100,000 in liquid capital, with a minimum net worth requirement of $300,000 to $350,000 depending on the specific territory configuration and deal structure being considered. Ongoing financial obligations include a royalty rate of 5 percent of gross sales and an advertising fund contribution of between 1 percent and 3 percent of gross sales, placing the total ongoing fee burden in the range of 6 to 8 percent of top-line revenue — consistent with the fast-casual segment average and modestly below some premium sandwich concepts. Planet Sub operates as a privately held entity with no publicly traded parent company, which means investors should engage directly with the franchise disclosure document and request access to audited financial statements as part of their due diligence process. The investment profile overall positions Planet Sub as an accessible to mid-tier franchise opportunity within the fast-casual restaurant category, with a cost structure that is notably lower than many competing sandwich franchise concepts in the same market segment.

Daily operations at a Planet Sub location are structured around the scratch-cooking model that defines the brand's identity and competitive differentiation. Each store occupies 1,600 to 2,500 square feet with a minimum 25 feet of frontage, requires approximately 400-amp three-phase electrical power, and follows a preferred HVAC specification of one ton per 150 square feet — a build-out profile that fits standard suburban retail strip centers and supports the brand's preference for locations in residential and suburban areas with populations exceeding 25,000 and median household incomes at or above $45,000. Lease terms are structured around 10-year initial terms with 5-year renewal options, providing franchisees with long-run location stability that supports the amortization of build-out and equipment investments. The staffing model is designed to be accessible: brand materials indicate that entry-level staff can learn the necessary operational skills within one to two days, with no cooking or complex culinary training required beyond the bread-making process, and the operational simplicity is a deliberate design feature intended to reduce both labor costs and turnover friction. Franchisees participate in a 30-day hands-on training program with the explicit goal of ensuring operators can produce the brand's signature scratch-made bread to standard before their store opens — a training intensity that is above average for the fast-casual sandwich segment and reflects how central product consistency is to the brand's value proposition. The company describes its support infrastructure as a "Killer Support Network," with a team characterized as accessible, practical, and committed to being reachable both throughout the store opening process and on an ongoing operational basis. Some Planet Sub locations also offer craft beer on tap, an ancillary revenue stream that adds ticket size and differentiates the dine-in experience in markets where licensing permits. The brand's proprietary customer order identification system — a playing card method used to route orders to guests — is a small operational signature that speaks to the brand's personality-driven culture and distinguishes the in-store experience from more transactional fast-food competitors.

Item 19 financial performance data is not disclosed in the current Franchise Disclosure Document, which means prospective investors do not have access to system-wide average unit volumes, median revenues, or profit margin data from the franchisor's own reporting. This disclosure gap is not unusual — franchisors are not legally required to provide Item 19 financial performance representations, and many emerging or mid-sized franchise systems elect not to file them — but it does place a higher burden on prospective franchisees to conduct independent revenue and profitability research before committing capital. In the absence of Item 19 data, investors should benchmark against publicly available sub sandwich industry metrics: the U.S. sub sandwich franchise category generated $23.6 billion in aggregate revenue in 2022 across its operator base, and the segment's 4.5 percent growth rate in that year suggests that well-positioned units in high-traffic suburban locations are operating in a demand environment that supports healthy unit volumes. Planet Sub's expansion from a handful of franchise stores to 42 current units with over 80 additional stores in development represents a meaningful growth signal — a brand experiencing unit-level economics that disappoint tends not to attract new franchisee capital at that rate. The brand's recognition in the Franchise Business Review's "Best of the Best: Top 40 Food Franchises in America" ranking is derived from franchisee satisfaction surveys, and high franchisee satisfaction is a statistically meaningful leading indicator that unit economics are meeting or exceeding investor expectations at the operating level. Prospective franchisees conducting due diligence should request validation conversations with existing Planet Sub franchisees — particularly operators in markets comparable to their target territory — and should model revenue scenarios using the $78,000 to $300,000 total investment range against conservative, base, and optimistic sales assumptions anchored to regional fast-casual sandwich category benchmarks. The combination of a relatively low initial investment ceiling, a 5 percent royalty rate, and the brand's described operational simplicity creates a cost structure that, paired with sufficient unit volume, can produce attractive cash-on-cash return profiles for owner-operators.

Planet Sub's growth trajectory tells a story of deliberate acceleration. The brand operated 14 corporate stores and 28 franchise locations as of 2016, reaching a total of 42 units by 2026 while simultaneously building a development pipeline of over 80 stores — a three-year growth dynamic that represents a significant inflection in franchise sales velocity. The brand's stated goal of becoming one of the fastest-growing fresh-casual concepts in the United States is backed by an open market strategy that targets geographically diverse expansion areas including Kansas City, Wichita, Topeka, Lawrence, Des Moines, St. Louis, Phoenix, Tucson, Austin, Oklahoma City, Dallas, San Antonio, Omaha, Springfield, Lincoln, and plans for entry into Atlanta, Georgia, in the near term. The competitive moat Planet Sub has built over its 45-plus-year operational history rests on four structural pillars: a scratch-made bread program that is genuinely difficult for competitors to replicate at scale without similar per-location infrastructure, a daily protein and sauce preparation standard that drives measurable product differentiation, a menu depth of over 45 sandwich varieties that generates repeat visit frequency, and a brand culture that attracts what the company describes as "authentic attitudes" — employees who tend toward creative, personality-driven engagement with guests. The "over 30 years of consistent growth" narrative the brand promotes is anchored in a real operational history dating to the 1979 founding of Yello Sub, giving Planet Sub a brand heritage story that newer entrants in the fast-casual sandwich space cannot replicate. Multiple revenue streams — including the core sandwich business, made-to-order salads, romaine lettuce wraps, soups, cookies, and craft beer at select locations — provide franchisees with tools to increase average check size and adapt to local consumer preferences. The brand's ability to attract franchisee satisfaction rankings from third-party reviewers like Franchise Business Review while simultaneously accelerating its development pipeline suggests the corporate team under Kelly Klusman is executing on both franchisee recruitment and franchisee retention simultaneously, a dual capability that is rarer than it appears in the franchise industry.

The ideal Planet Sub franchisee is an owner-operator with strong community roots, a genuine interest in food quality, and the management capability to lead a small team in a high-throughput production environment. The brand's operational design — with entry-level staff able to learn core skills in one to two days and no complex culinary background required — means that prior restaurant experience is helpful but not mandatory; what matters more is organizational discipline, a willingness to participate in the 30-day hands-on training program, and a commitment to maintaining the scratch-made quality standards that define the brand. Targeted expansion markets span the Midwest, Southwest, and Southeast, with open territories in major metros including Phoenix, Tucson, Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, and Atlanta — markets where the fast-casual consumer base is large, growing, and demonstrably willing to support premium sandwich concepts. Site selection criteria favor suburban and residential trade areas with populations above 25,000 and median household incomes at or above $45,000, a demographic profile that is found in thousands of qualifying markets across the United States. The franchise agreement structure involves 10-year initial lease terms with 5-year renewals, providing long-run operating stability. Multi-unit development is an option the brand actively supports as it pursues its 80-plus-unit development pipeline, making Planet Sub a potential fit for investors who want to acquire territorial rights in an emerging growth market before those territories are committed to other operators. The timeline from signing a franchise agreement to opening is shaped primarily by site selection, permitting, and build-out, all of which are variables the brand's support team assists franchisees in navigating.

The Planet Sub franchise opportunity sits at an analytically interesting intersection: a brand with 45 years of operational DNA, a scratch-made product model that drives genuine consumer loyalty, a franchise fee of $26,750 and total investment range of $78,000 to $300,000 that makes it one of the more accessible entry points in the fresh-casual sandwich segment, and a growth pipeline that has expanded to over 80 stores in development within a three-year window. The absence of Item 19 financial performance disclosure means that prospective investors must conduct additional independent validation work — but the brand's franchisee satisfaction rankings, royalty structure of 5 percent of gross sales, and demonstrated unit growth all point toward a system that is delivering sufficient value to attract and retain franchise partners. The $23.6 billion U.S. sub sandwich market and the broader $1.59 trillion global full-service restaurant industry provide a large and growing addressable market within which a well-run Planet Sub location can carve out durable, defensible revenue. The PeerSense Franchise Performance Index score of 38 (Fair) reflects the current stage of the brand's national expansion and the disclosure limitations in the current FDD — context that sophisticated investors can factor appropriately into their analysis. PeerSense provides exclusive due diligence data including SBA lending history, FPI score, location maps with Google ratings, FDD financial data, and side-by-side comparison tools that allow investors to benchmark Planet Sub against comparable fast-casual and sandwich franchise concepts across every relevant financial and operational dimension. Explore the complete Planet Sub franchise profile on PeerSense to access the full suite of independent franchise intelligence data.