Subway has announced two international master franchise agreements, one in Thailand and one in the State of Kuwait, according to a press release. In Thailand, About Passion Co. Ltd. inked a deal for more than 700 restaurants across Thailand. About Passion Co. Ltd. is an existing Subway multi-unit franchisee and leading food and beverage retailer in Thailand. "Today's announcement is a significant step towards growing our Asia Pacific business," John Chidsey, chief executive officer of Subway, said in the release. "We have seen a strong demand for Subway across Thailand and, with About Passion Co. Ltd.'s existing knowledge of our business model and success in implementing operational excellence across their current restaurant locations, we are confident they will be successful in strategically expanding our presence in the country." "We have seen enormous success in our Subway restaurants throughout Bangkok and are committed to continuing to build profitable and sustainable growth and inspiring brand love amongst Thai consumers," Thanakorn Thanawarith, founder and director of About Passion Co. Ltd., said in the release. "As guests across Thailand increasingly seek better-for-you, convenient and affordable food options, we're confident Subway will be a welcome and distinct alternative to the QSR brands traditionally offered in the region. We thank Subway for trusting and choosing About Passion Co. Ltd. as part of the brand's success in Thailand." In the State of Kuwait, Kout Food Group (KFG) signed a deal with Subway to open an undisclosed number of Subway stores. "The agreement with KFG is another important milestone on Subway's international expansion journey," Chidsey said. "As a large-scale operator with regional expertise and a proven track record of scaling operations to meet guest demand, KFG is an ideal partner for Subway as the company grows its global footprint." "We believe KFG's best-in-class operations paired with Subway and its commitment to relentless evolution when it comes to food, guest experience and digital offerings position this partnership for unparalleled growth in Kuwait's dynamic market," Amin Mohamed, CEO of Kout Food Group, said in the release. "We are looking forward to embarking on this journey with Subway and growing the business together." Subway operates more than 37,000 shops across more than 100 countries.

Hungry Bunny is a popular burger franchise that used to be open back in Kuwait during the 80s pre Burger King and McDonalds days. When Al Homaizi got the Burger King franchise, they shutdown all the Hungry Bunny locations and killed the brand. But the original creator of Hungry Bunny ended up launching the brand in Saudi Arabia and then a few years ago brought the brand back to Kuwait. Al Homaizi Group sued them and it now seems Hungry Bunny has been told to stop using the bunny logo until a verdict is reached in the court case. I passed by Hungry Bunny for a quick bite yesterday and the majority of the items had the Hungry Bunny logo without the bunny (like in the placemats pictured above). But, some items like the burger wrapper still had the bunny on them. According to the shop manager this is just a temporary issue and the bunny will be coming back soon. They’ve even removed the bunny from the shop signage as well so it’s a pretty awkward mess right now. Update: Al Homaizi have commented with the following: Dear Mark and Loyal Hungry Bunny Customers, It is great to see Hungry Bunny still having that nostalgic feeling within Kuwait and we thank you for your post which we appreciate and are proud of as the founders of the Hungry Bunny brand. With regards to your post, we would like to mention that Hungry Bunny was developed in 1982 by Al Homaizi Foodstuff Co. in Kuwait and is 100% Kuwaiti. As the first local franchise in Kuwait, Hungry Bunny led the way and opened the doors to decades of innovative local concepts within Kuwait which we are very proud to see are still growing today. The Hungry Bunny restaurants that launched in and outside of Kuwait following 1997 were not the original Hungry Bunny developed by Al Homaizi Foodstuff Co. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of our loyal Hungry Bunny customers! We would love to hear more about your experiences and memories that you, your family and your friends had in the 80’s and 90’s at the much-loved Hungry Bunny. Please share your memories with us by sending us an email to HungryBunny@koutfood.com Best Wishes, Al Homaizi Foodstuff Co. Member of Kout Food Group, Kuwait

Kout Food Group (KFG) was established in 1998 by Al Homaizi family and mainly by Mr. Yagoub Yousif Al Homaizi. The company specializes in the consumer food service industry and operates many international chains in Kuwait. KFG operates eight food service brands such as Burger King, Pizza Hut, Kababji, Taco Bell, and Applebee’s.

The UK branch of the Kuwaiti firm Kout Food Group Restaurants has taken over The Little Chef chain of roadside restaurants in the UK for nearly US $23mn. KFGR-UK chairperson Fadwa al Homaizi, said in a statement: "KFGR-UK has exciting plans to revitalise the Little Chef brand. "Little Chef will benefit from a process of brand renewal in keeping with current trends, supported by traditional British values." The brand Little Chef has faced hurdles in recent times with a restructuring in 2007, and was put up for sale in April 2013. It currently has 1,100 employees with 83 sites across Britain's A-roads. Celeb chef Heston Blumenthal also worked with the brand to revamp its menu. KFG was launched in 1982, and runs franchises like Burger King, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Applebee's, and Burj Al-Hamam in the Middle East. In the UK, it operates Maison Blanc restaurants and more than 40 KFC and Burger King outlets. The seller of Little Chef, RCapital's CEO Jamie Constable said he was confident "the new owners will take the brand to the next stage."

Hungry Bunny is a local creation that opened up in the early 80s in Kuwait. It was inspired by a Australian franchise called Hungry Jack which was what Burger King was called in Australia back then. In 1997 Al Homaizi Foodstuff Co. who owned Hungry Bunny got the rights to Burger King. Since they couldn’t have two competing franchises they decided to close down all the Hungry Bunnys and open up Burger Kings in the same locations. Since then there have been copycats the most popular being “Hungry Bunny World” and “Super Bunny” which was named after the famous Hungry Bunny burger. Hungry Bunny World actually opened up a branch on the 4th Ring Road back in 2005 and called it just “Hungry Bunny”. This led to a lot of speculation and rumors that Hungry Bunny was relaunching but they weren’t true. Al Homaizi sued (or threatened to sue) so they added the word “World” on their signage. I heard awhile back from a friend that Al Homaizi was actually thinking of relaunching Hungry Bunny but I don’t know if thats true or not. For now the only way you can enjoy Hungry Bunny is to drive down to Saudi Arabia where the franchise still exists there. Here is the link to their website: www.hungry-bunny.com note: the above information is based on my knowledge. If there are any mistakes in dates or events I will fix them but as far as I know the above is accurate. update: A reader by the name of HaMooR wrote the following: Dear Mark, Al Homaizi has the BK franchize since the first hungry bunny openned in Kuwait. and I believe it was Kaifan branch, in order for Al Homaizi to sake BK prudects at that time in kuwait. they have to change the name of BK, because BK was consider in the taboo list (boycott Isreal). There was a big sign in kaifan branch that says all the meat prudects are BK. So when BK was removed from the list back in 97 .. and there is no reason to for them to hide the name, they switched to BK.