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Warren Buffett is being accused of copying Subway
(Dave Weaver/AP Images) Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett orders lunch in an Omaha Dairy Queen.
Warren Buffett's company is making over Dairy Queen with new menu items including sandwiches — and Subway allegedly isn't happy about it.
A Subway insider recently told the New York Post that Dairy Queen is "ripping off" the chain with its newest line of oven-baked sandwiches.
Dairy Queen is owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.
The billionaire reportedly visited Subway's headquarters in Connecticut last year, as he had "expressed a passing interest in buying the nation’s biggest sandwich chain," according to the Post.
While at the HQ, Buffett and a top Berkshire Hathaway exec, Tracy Britt Cool, "got a good look behind the counter," sources told the Post.
While it's not uncommon for top figures like Buffett to make such visits, many are questioning the timing of the release of Dairy Queen's new specialized sandwich line, which closely aligns with particular menu items from Subway.
Its newly launched menu, "DQ Bakes!", includes three new artisan-style sandwiches, which started appearing in restaurants last month.
“This is a game changer for our system. The DQ system has introduced ovens into our locations — DQ Bakes! ovens. DQBakes! are hot, delicious, made-to-order sandwiches, snacks and desserts, available any time of day, ” said Barry Westrum, executive vice president of marketing for Dairy Queen, in a press release at the time of the launch.
The new oven-baked DQ Bakes! sandwiches include the chicken-bacon ranch sandwich, the chicken-mozzarella sandwich, and the turkey BLT.
(Dairy Queen) Dairy Queen's new chicken-bacon ranch sandwich.
Subway has identical hot menu items, including its chicken-bacon ranch melt and its turkey-bacon-avocado sandwich.
(YouTube/RuffnSmooth05) Subway's chicken-bacon ranch melt.
“They copied us. They went to our vendors,” a Subway insider told the Post.
While these are popular sandwich combinations that appear in many different chains nationwide, Dairy Queen also allegedly uses similar equipment to Subway when it prepares sandwiches.
"Dairy Queen’s franchisees are being given a choice of buying ovens from one of two manufacturers that are also used by many Subway franchisees," according to the Post.
A Dairy Queen representative was quick to shoot down the narrative and issued the following statement to Business Insider:
"American Dairy Queen Corporation and our product development team has been working on our new DQ Bakes! menu consisting of nine new hot desserts, hot snack melts and hot sandwiches for more than three years. The ovens we are using are readily available within the quick-service restaurant industry as well as coffee houses and are available from multiple suppliers."
A Subway spokesperson issued the following statement:
"That information was inaccurate. The founders have no interest in selling the company. We have no additional comments on this subject."
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