That didn’t take long.
Jersey Mike’s, just one year after completing a sale to the private-equity firm Blackstone, has hired advisors to take the company public as soon as the third quarter of this year, according to a report in Bloomberg.
The publication said that Jersey Mike’s has hired Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase on an IPO. It also said that the sandwich company could raise more than $1 billion in an offering and be valued at $12 billion.
A representative for Jersey Mike’s said the company did not have comment.
But signs of a Jersey Mike’s IPO have been all over the place. The company named as CEO Charlie Morrison, who had previously taken Wingstop public. Jersey Mike’s was a visible presence at the ICR Conference earlier this month.
The private-equity firm Blackstone, which had earlier in 2024 acquired Tropical Smoothie Café, acquired Jersey Mike’s for $8 billion. The deal was completed early last year, and Morrison took over for company founder and longtime CEO Peter Cancro.
It wouldn’t take long for Jersey Mike’s to be speculated as a potential public company. The sandwich chain has taken considerable share from market leader Subway, thanks to a combination of unit growth and stronger average-unit volumes. Those volumes have increased 57% since 2019, according to data from Restaurant Business sister company Technomic.
Jersey Mike’s operates more than 3,000 units, most of which are owned by franchisees.
Cancro remains involved in the chain as chairman, and he recently inked a deal to oversee the chain’s expansion in the U.K. and Ireland.
Morrison at the ICR Conference said that the chain has opportunities to “amplify” much of what it already does well, such as technology. But he is not eager to do much different, and highlighted the consistency of the chain’s growth.
“We’re not going to change anything,” he said. “There’s no need to change it. We’ve had 20 consecutive years of same-store sales growth. We’re opening 300 units a year on average over the last five years. Why would we modify that?”
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.