TORONTO – The CEO of Freshii Inc., a chain of Canadian fast-casual restaurants specializing in better-for-you offerings, released an open letter to Subway seeking a partnership.

In a letter that ran as a full-page newspaper advertisement, Freshii CEO Matthew Corrin argued that Subway had…“overdeveloped its retail base” by opening too many stores and chasing too few customers. Subway currently operates nearly 44,000 locations around the world, but restaurant industry analysts believe Subway would be better off with 30,000.

To reach this goal, Corrin asked Subway to consider a partnership in which select Subway stores are converted to Freshii restaurants “…in a quick, low-cost way.”

“We believe we’ll be creating a better future centered around affordable entrepreneurship to reignite the entrepreneurial spirit across your entire system,” he said. “We estimate average conversion costs, including equipment, will total around $75,000 and believe we can work together to help partners make this a reality.”

No word yet from Subway, which recently announced a lawsuit against the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) for a news report claiming the company’s chicken strips are less than 50 percent chicken.