Jersey Mike's Files to Go Public, a Year After Its Blackstone Deal

The sandwich chain with the New Jersey name and the fast-slicing counter is heading to Wall Street.

The filing

Jersey Mike's Subs has filed to go public and plans to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker JMKE, CNBC reported. The company is expected to seek a valuation of at least $12 billion and to raise more than $1 billion in the offering, according to reporting on the filing, with a debut possible later this year. It has not yet set a share count or price range.

The move comes barely a year and a half after Blackstone, the private-equity firm, acquired a majority stake in the chain in a deal valued at roughly $8 billion. Taking a company public soon after a buyout is a common way for such investors to begin cashing in on their bet.

The numbers

The filing shows a chain still expanding briskly. Jersey Mike's reported about $724 million in revenue in 2025 and net income of roughly $55 million, up sharply from the year before, CNBC and Bloomberg reported. System-wide sales — the total rung up across company-owned and franchised stores — reached about $4.3 billion. The company touted 20 straight years of positive same-store sales and a cumulative jump of roughly 50% from 2020 through 2025, even as many restaurant chains have seen customers pull back.

With roughly 3,300 locations, most of them franchised, Jersey Mike's has become one of the country's larger sub-sandwich chains, with a big share of its stores opened in just the past decade.

From a seaside deli

The chain's origin story is a favorite of its marketing. Peter Cancro bought the original shop, then called Mike's Submarines, in the Jersey Shore town of Point Pleasant in 1975, at 17, and began franchising in the late 1980s under the Jersey Mike's name. From that single deli, the company grew into a national brand built largely on franchising.

The bigger picture

The offering arrives as more restaurant companies test the public markets after stretches of strong growth, betting investors will pay up for chains with proven expansion. If Jersey Mike's fetches the valuation it is reportedly targeting, it would be worth more than several long-established public restaurant names — a notable milestone for a business that started with a teenager and a sandwich counter at the shore.