Today, Jersey Mike's moves from slinging subs to also slinging stock as it goes public at a roughly $7 billion valuation.

The company's newly available shares fell slightly in volatile early trading after pricing in the middle of the IPO range. The debut marks the culmination of a years-long process to grow the company's value.

It's been 51 years since 17-year-old Peter Cancro took out a loan to buy the Jersey Shore sandwich shop where he worked, and not even two years since Blackstone acquired a controlling stake in the chain.

In that short time, the world's largest private equity investor has transformed how the sandwich chain is run, bringing in outside professional managers, establishing a corporate board, and giving employees a stake in the business's equity. It'll be Blackstone's public market debut of private equity's newly popular profit-sharing strategy.

For all that rapid change, the one thing the firm hasn't touched is the sandwiches themselves. Other than adding new ones like the Hot Italian, it kept the portions the same and sliced the deli meat fresh. According to a source with direct knowledge of Jersey Mike's operations, the restaurant's suppliers have not changed since the acquisition.

Here's what Blackstone has changed at the Jersey Shore sandwich shop, and what's stayed the same across nearly 3,300 stores.

From the Shore to the boardroom

Over the nearly five decades that Cancro was the sole owner and executive decision-maker, he grew that one sandwich shop into a nationwide business, hiring family members and paying some of them tens of millions of dollars.

The original Mike's Subs location in Point Pleasant, New Jersey. USA TODAY/ Reuters Connect

Before he sold a majority stake to Blackstone for $8 billion in debt and equity in 2024, it still operated like a family-run business. As part of the deal, Cancro stepped down as CEO and became a board member. The deal gave Blackstone an 80% stake and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority a 10% stake in the business, with Cancro's share down to 10%.

Cancro wrote in the firm's S-1 that he decided to sell to Blackstone because of the firm's strong experience in franchise businesses, most famously with the ultra-profitable Hilton acquisition.

Cancro was replaced as CEO by Charles Morrison, a longtime industry vet who took Wingstop public in 2015 and was most recently the CEO of Salad and Go.

The sandwich shop's first board included Nigel Travis, former longtime CEO of Dunkin', serving as its chairman, Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Fran Horowitz, former AutoNation CEO Cheryl Miller, and three more Blackstone executives.

Rounding out the executive level are a suite of new hires, including Michele Allen, former CFO of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, at CFO, and Stacy Peterson, former CEO of Jeni's Ice Cream, at COO.

Spread the wealth

With this IPO, Blackstone is doubling down on the idea that executives and workers who are incentivized to see the company do well are more likely to stay and do their best work.

It's offering a shared ownership plan in the form of bonuses to the firm's corporate employees, who work in suburban New Jersey. Blackstone announced in 2024 that all of its future US private equity deals would include these programs, which have become widespread in the industry.

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Jersey Mike's bonuses will be funded by Blackstone's own payout, can be either cash or equity, and can range from 0% to 200% of an employees' eligible compensation. The final payout is based on Blackstone's return on its original investment and can also be prorated by an employee's tenure at the company.

Direct employees who don't participate in the other equity incentive programs — and have been at the firm for at least a year when Blackstone is no longer in control of the company — will get a payout. Franchisees, their sandwich-making employees, and employees of corporate-owned stores are not eligible for the ownership plan.

As is more standard, executives will also get stock grants, aligning their interests with the firm's investors.

This will be Blackstone's first time bringing one of these broad ownership plans public. Other examples of an IPO involving one of these plans come from industry shared-ownership evangelist KKR: Gardner Denver, now Ingersoll Rand, and Lineage Logistics. The Jersey Mike's filing is unique in that it exposes the nuts and bolts of how their plan will work.

But it is much smaller than other examples: Jersey Mike's had 293 corporate personnel as of the end of last year, while Ingersoll Rand said it has granted equity to more than 28,000 employees since 2017. Blackstone-owned Copeland, which confidentially filed for an IPO at the end of last year, has 18,000 employees eligible for similar ownership benefits.

Big subs, bigger business

Expansion has remained central to Blackstone's investment thesis. The total number of stores is only up about 8.4% from when Blackstone purchased the chain. The firm is likely doubling down on Jersey Mike's franchisee development pipeline of 1,600 potential new stores, 90% of them from existing franchise owners.

A Jersey Mike's franchise owner. USA TODAY/ Reuters Connect

Jersey Mike's is now taking its first continental leap to the UK and Ireland, with Peter Cancro signing a master franchise deal to open up to 300 stores in Ireland. It had already been launched in Canada the year Blackstone purchased it.

Blackstone also used its financial heft to help Jersey Mike's refinance much of its debt earlier this year in a $760 million whole-business securitization. This has resulted in debt levels that are high relative to franchised peers, although the company's profit margins are generally superior, according to the Wall Street research firm Gordon Haskett.

The most obvious signs that expansion is the long-term plan are the specifics of the deal. Blackstone may be bringing Jersey Mike's public less than two years after buying it, but it's doing so at roughly the same valuation, inclusive of debt, that it paid. That implies that Blackstone will hold onto its shares for a while, waiting for its plan to fully pay off. Blackstone has historically held shares of firms it IPOed for years after a transaction, including Hilton, which it held for more than 4 years after the IPO.

They are, of course, recouping some of their costs. For one, the recent debt raise included a dividend for Blackstone, and the firm is selling the lion's share of the IPO offering, at more than 26 million shares. Still, it will retain about two-thirds of the company's voting power. The IPO will also mint nearly 14 million new shares.

In other words, they're going to be in the driver's seat for a while. And with a projected future of 7,500 US restaurants and 15,000 globally, that may be a very lucrative position.

Correction: July 30, 2026 — An earlier version of this story named the wrong company that granted equity to more than 28,000 employees since 2017. It was Ingersoll Rand.