Jersey Mike’s first day of trading was rough. | Photo courtesy of NYSE Group Inc.
Jersey Mike’s first day as a public company did not quite have the debut some no doubt expected.
The fast-casual sandwich chain began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday with an opening price set at $23 per share. The stock opened at $21 per share and hit a high of $22.88, but ended down nearly 6% by the end of the trading day to $21.63.
It was still the restaurant industry’s largest IPO and the sandwich chain is valued at about $7.3 billion.
CEO Charlie Morrison, however, spent the day touting the brand’s opportunity for growth, saying in an interview with Restaurant Business that “I think being a public company is what this brand was destined for.”
The 3,300-unit mostly franchised chain sees an opportunity to reach as many as 7,500 units domestically, with an additional 7,500 units in international markets. Over the past five years, Jersey Mike’s has added roughly 300 units per year, and that’s likely to accelerate as the brand grows overseas.
Jersey Mike’s has only just begun crossing international borders, with a handful of units open in Canada and the first location in the U.K. opening later this year. Founder and former CEO Peter Cancro is the master franchisee for the brand’s growth in the U.K. and Ireland, and he expects to see at least 300 open there.
Morisson, who rang the opening bell for the stock exchange on Thursday, said the company has not identified where Jersey Mike’s might go next in the world.
“We’re just in the early stages of it,” he said. “But what I can tell you is, we will continue to expand the brand with best-in-class operators throughout Western Europe, the Middle East, parts of Asia and certainly into Central and South America.”
Morrison said he believes Jersey Mike’s can continue to steal market share, and not only from the sandwich segment that has been long dominated by 18,773-unit Subway in the U.S.
Jersey Mike’s average unit volume of $1.4 million is already nearly three times that of Subway, which has an AUV of $510,000, according to Technomic.
But Morrison contends Jersey Mike’s is already stealing share from others in the limited-service category, including Chipotle, Wingstop, Taco Bell and McDonald’s.
Jersey Mike’s has had 20 consecutive years of same-store sales growth. Morrison said the chain ended the second quarter with same-store sales up 2.3%, driven mostly by transactions. That’s an acceleration from the first quarter this year, when same-store sales were up 1.7%, also driven by transactions.
Many brands have increased prices, but Morrison said Jersey Mike’s has kept pricing moderate.
“We think that’s going to help fuel transaction growth,” said Morrison. “We’ve also taken a couple of products like our chicken salad sub. We rolled that out over the summer and featured that to the consumer at a value orientation of $8.95 for a regular-size sub. And customers love it.”
A key for continuing that momentum will be capturing younger diners, he said.
This year, the chain has a roughly $200 million ad fund. Jersey Mike’s launched a series of ads that have included the famed actor Danny DeVito and football champion Eli Manning (football season is coming), who both joined Morrison at the opening bell on Thursday.
Those ads target a younger audience, Morrison said, noting that DeVito has been on “Always Sunny in Philadelphia” for 17 years.
“Younger audiences love that show and love Danny for that, but he transcends just about every demographic,” said Morrison.
But Morrison also noted that Jersey Mike’s has devoted very little of its marketing spend to social media, where younger consumers live, and that will soon change.
“We are going to increase our commitment to spending in the paid social search and digital marketing efforts,” he said. “In 2025 alone, we spent almost zero of our advertising fund in paid search, social and digital forms of marketing. That’s unheard of for a brand our size that has $200 million in the ad fund.”
Expect to see more about Jersey Mike’s on social media, including leveraging influencers and amplifying the voices of younger consumers, he said.
“We know they love our subs. They love the product. We just need to connect with them in a more differentiated way,” he said.
Fundamentally, Morrison contends that Jersey Mike’s has a “big addressable market ahead of us, not only here in the U.S., but also outside the U.S. and around the world,” he said.
“All of these attributes really play well with investors, and that asset-light model generates a lot of free cash flow, return capital to investors. We really feel like it’s going to be a great public company. We’re excited to bring it to the market.”
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