Charley’s Grilled Subs was founded by Charley Shin and the idea came to him when he was still a student of Real Estate at Ohio State University.  He worked in his mother’s Japanese restaurant in Columbus, Ohio and when he was on a trip with his family he took a wrong turn that allowed for his discovery of the Philly steak sub.  He was able to convince his mother to take a break from working, sell her restaurant and invest in Charley’s Grilled Subs, which was a 450 square foot restaurant across the street from the University.  The first thing Charley did was turn the grill around so that it would face the customers.  He liked the idea allowing the customer to always see their food being cooked.  This became the trademark of Charley’s Grilled Subs.  The chain now has 400 locations in 46 states and in Puerto Rico and 15 other countries.  It was established as a franchise in 1986 and is still open today.

Charley’s Grilled Subs features many sandwiches like the Philly cheesesteak, Buffalo Chicken, Chicken Teriyaki, and the new Chicken Chipotle, Spicy Asian BBQ, Southwest Chicken, and South Philly sandwiches.  These are just available for a limited time, but if they do well they could become daily items on the menu.  They also serve salads, fries, and lemonade along with other beverages as well.  Charley’s Grilled Subs is known for providing bold, hot, and spicy flavors with their subs and they are located in malls, airports, on military bases, and in free stand locations across the world.

There are restaurant franchise opportunities with Charley’s Grilled Subs and they look for people with a strong desire for success and an entrepreneurial spirit to learn the way they do things and the way they operate.  Typically you will need to have between $75,000 and $100,000 worth of liquid assets and a minimum credit score of 700 to qualify for a franchise with Charley’s Grilled Subs.  They charge a $34,500 franchise fee per unit and the royalties are 6% of the gross sales along with 0.25% of the gross sales into the advertising pool.  They also require franchises to spend 3% of the gross sales for local promotions in the area they are located in.