Freshii’s chief executive is serious about his company’s campaign to form a partnership with rival Subway.

The company published an open letter on its corporate web site on Tuesday seeking to “explore a partnership” with its counterpart, a move that Freshii’s CEO says has already opened a conversation between the two companies.

“The CEO of Subway reached out to me yesterday,” Matt Corrin told BNN on Wednesday. “I plan on returning her call today and we will start the dialogue.”

Corrin reiterated that his overture to turn some Subway locations into Freshii storefronts “in a quick, low-cost way” was serious and not meant to attract publicity to his own company.

“It’s not a stunt, it’s real,” Corrin told BNN. “It’s real ideas. It’s thoughtful. When you put something out there publicly you’ve got to be prepared to defend your position.”

“Every open letter we’ve done over the years has had a very specific purpose and is done from the heart and not meant to be mean-spirited.”

Corrin said his company’s focus on Subway arose after the company went public.

“This idea to publish the open letter came up once we were a public company,” Corrin told BNN. “During the prospectus guidance that we provided, anything that we might do with Subway – per the open letter – is above and beyond, an upside to the prospectus.”

He added that there’s a logical fit for the two businesses, based on existing Freshii franchise activity.

“The reason why we know this will work is that it’s already happening within our system,” he said. “We have Subway franchisees who sold their Subway to join Freshii. We have Subway franchisees who kept their Subways and added Freshii to their portfolio. And now we’re seeing franchisees who actually want to convert their Subways to Freshii.”

“That third bucket, that actually requires support from the parent company.”