Last Thursday, Robin, 41, and Chris, 49, Sorensen, the founders of Firehouse Subs visited Auburn as part of their Founders Tour, where the two brothers visited the franchises as a store promotion.
They visited the store on South College Street, which opened in 2003, the store across from Lowder Business Building, which the brothers call War Eagle that opened in 2008 and the one in Columbus, Ga.
"We go to college towns all over the country and encourage the franchisees to get involved with the campus," Robin said. "We have fed the swim team, football team and for Greek Week. We're donating 10 percent of our profits.
The brothers have helped raise more than $2.5 million for firefighter charities with $65,000 of it going to the Auburn, Opelika and Columbus fire departments. In Auburn, Robin said Firehouse's target audience is college students and they try to make sure that students are getting the best bang for their buck.
"When you get a large sub from us, that's half a pound of meat," Robin said. "That's double what our largest competitor puts on
theirs. It's a better offering and a higher quality. Our meats are never frozen, sliced fresh everyday and are twice amount of meat."
Jake Winfrey, junior in agricultural economics, said although this was his first time visiting Firehouse in three years, he thoroughly enjoyed the food and service.
"I got the number six -- Club Sub," Winfrey said. "Firehouse has great food, great service and is better than Subway. It was phenomenal."
David Carter, a Firehouse employee and sophomore in engineering, has worked at the restaurant for more than a year and says the people there are great and works well together.
"We have good food and good customers," Carter said. "The work environment is always positive and the managers are laid back. I had never heard of Firehouse before I moved here."
With 374 stores in 19 states, there are Firehouse Subs as far west as Nevada and as far north as Maryland.
Started in Jacksonville, Fla., the Sorensens attempted different business ventures before ending on Firehouse.
"We've tried several things and part of our success is that we didn't do it for the money, Chris said. "We tried doing things we didn't necessarily enjoy until we actually found what we really liked to do. We liked to cook. A lot of people struggle with just trying to find what it is in their life that means something to them. I know people my age that are still in search of that. My wife's passion when I met her 20 years ago wanted to stay home and raise kinds. Whatever it is, and it took us a while, we didn't want to be wealthy just successful."
He said they are always positive and never look at negative because there are always obstacles that could push them down, but they have to just focus on their product.
"Whatever it is we sell, people have to like it," Chris said. "It wasn't on financial success, we just had to provide the right experience or the product. We were really focusing on being the best we can be."
He said he does have plans to expand to Phenix City.
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