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- Sandwich chain Jersey Mike's is gearing up for an initial public offering.
- It spent $41 million on a jet for its founder and has big expansion plans, according to its IPO prospectus.
- Here are four interesting tidbits from the restaurant chain's 220-page document.
There's a lot sandwiched in Jersey Mike's IPO filing.
The restaurant chain is gearing up to go public in what's on track to be the second-biggest restaurant IPO of all time. Unlike its peers, many of which went public earlier in their histories, Jersey Mike's is an established brand with thousands of restaurants.
Founder Peter Cancro started Jersey Mike's after buying a single sandwich shop in New Jersey in 1975. Since then, Cancro has grown Jersey Mike's into a national chain. Last year, private equity firm Blackstone acquired a majority stake in the company for $8 billion.
Its latest S-1 securities filing, a document that companies file with the Securities and Exchange Commission in preparation to go public, divulges new information about the company, its strategy, and the people who have led it.
Here are some of the most interesting aspects of the business that the prospectus includes:
Jersey Mike's wants to more than quadruple its store base
There are about 3,300 mostly franchisee-operated Jersey Mike's restaurants in the US, and that number could grow considerably, the company wrote in the filing. Its densest concentration of stores is in some Southeastern states, such as North and South Carolina.
Jersey Mike's estimated that it could open as many as 7,500 stores in the US.
"While we operate in all 50 states today, we believe we remain under-penetrated in all markets, providing substantial runway for growth," the document reads.
That number could grow to 15,000 with international expansions. Jersey Mike's plans to open 300 stores in Canada and another 300 in the UK and Ireland, per the prospectus.
Jersey Mike's describes its menu as 'protein-forward'
The sandwich chain is catering to two big diet-related trends: Protein consumption and weight-loss drugs like GLP-1s.
Jersey Mike's menu "is well-suited to meet a wide range of dietary preferences, including protein-focused and GLP-1 users," the prospectus said.
The chain points to its Italian sub, which it said contains about 47 grams of protein, as an example. Ten other subs contain at least 35 grams of protein, Jersey Mike's said.
"Our subs are inherently protein-forward," the document read.
Two-thirds of the subs it sells are cold, and the largest share of its sales (47%) happens at lunchtime.
Cancro's family members have made tens of millions from the business
Before the Blackstone deal, several of Cancro's family members worked at Jersey Mike's, according to the filing. Collectively, those family members made millions of dollars from the investment.
Between 2023 and 2025, for instance, the company paid John Cancro, the founder's brother, about $21 million. Daniel Powers, his brother-in-law, made about $32 million over the same period. And Phillip Sivolobov, his stepson and a director at Jersey Mike's until early 2025, made almost $51 million, per the document.
None of the family members received compensation from Jersey Mike's during the first quarter of 2026, according to the prospectus.
The company bought founder Peter Cancro a private jet
In 2024, Jersey Mike's spent $41 million on a plane for Cancro, a footnote in the prospectus's financial information reads. Cancro is a member of the company's board and served as CEO until April 2025.
The jet was transferred to a business entity controlled by Cancro, according to the document. The chain also paid Cancro about $2 million last year to cover costs "related to air transportation to travel from time to time for business purposes."
The jet purchase and payments came shortly before Blackstone acquired its majority stake in January 2025.
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