Jersey Mike’s has filed for an IPO just over a year after Blackstone acquired it for around $8 billion
As America’s fastest-growing sandwich chain, the sub specialist has tripled its store count in 10 years.
And where are Eli Manning and Danny DeVito in all of this?
On Monday, Jersey Mike’s Subs, the self-proclaimed home of “the most authentic tasting submarine sandwich,” announced that it has confidentially filed to IPO, in what could become one of the biggest listings that the US restaurant industry has seen in years.
Let’s get this bread
According to a January Bloomberg report citing people familiar with the matter, Jersey Mike’s is working with Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, and Jefferies Financial Group on the offering, and will seek a valuation of “at least $12 billion” on a more than $1 billion raise. For context, the company was snapped up by Blackstone for $8 billion including debt in a deal that only closed in January 2025.
The chain has come a long way since it was founded as Mike’s Giant Submarine Shop in New Jersey 70 years ago, thanks mostly to the decades-long efforts of Peter Cancro, who bought the branch that he worked at in 1975 as a 17-year-old high schooler, started franchising Jersey Mike’s nine years later, and helmed the business as CEO until last April.
Under Cancro’s leadership, the sub shop, which says its bread is still freshly baked on-premises each day, has been rising for years.
Per annual data from QSR Magazine, Jersey Mike’s has grown to become America’s third-largest sandwich chain by store count, behind only Subway and Arby’s — the latter of which Mike’s could overtake in the coming years if it continues its highly impressive store count growth streak. Over the last three years, the company has added more than 275 stores annually on average across the US, and recently announced plans to franchise a whopping 400 outlets across the UK and Ireland going forward as well, in a clear sign of its sub-shaped ambitions around its IPO.
Those sorts of figures have been enough to maintain Jersey Mike’s position as America’s fastest-growing sandwich restaurant concept, putting it far ahead of giants in the game that have been heading in the opposite direction as of late.
Though Arby’s and Subway both possess larger footprints in the US (Arby’s by about 400, Subway by around 16,000 more than that) and notched higher total sales than Jersey Mike’s according to QSR’s latest top 50 fast-food chain report, both of the bigger sandwich spots actually saw their store counts decline, slumping by 1% and 3%, respectively, in 2024.
