After tweaking its menu to suit the Indian palate, fastfood brand Subway plans to expand its presence across IT parks, highways, hospitals and food courts.

“At least 30 per cent of our new stores will be in nontraditional formats, such as highways and IT parks. The rent in such locations is much less compared with high streets or malls,” said Gurpreet Gulri, Country Head, Subway India.

The Indian arm of the Connecticut-based chain, known for its submarines and sandwiches, started operations in India in 2001. It has 411 stores at present in the country. Gulri said the company follows a franchise model of business and the restaurants are completely owned by local franchisees. “We plan to have about 650 outlets by 2015,” he said, adding that low start-up costs make the model profitable.