Jimmy John's

Jimmy John's Franchise, LLC

Type	Privately held company
Founded	1983 (1983)
Founder	James John Liautaud
Headquarters	Champaign, Illinois, United States
Number of locations	2,316 (Sept 2015)
Website	jimmyjohns.com

Jimmy John's in Pasadena, California

Jimmy John's Franchise, LLC is a franchised sandwich restaurant chain, specializing in delivery. Founded by James John Liautaud in 1983 and headquartered in Champaign, Illinois, in 30 years, the company has grown to more than 2,000 locations in 43 states.^[1][2] Jimmy John's has opened approximately 200 locations per year over the past three years.^[3] As of 2013, 98% of the locations are franchise-owned.^[1][2]

The original Jimmy John's shop in Charleston, Illinois opened January 13, 1983

History

After James John Liautaud graduated second to last in his class at Elgin Academy (1982), his father gave him the choice to join the military or start a business.^[4] Liautaud eventually chose to start a business and accepted his father's $25,000 loan to start a hot dog business, with the son owning 52% of the business, and his father owning 48%.^[5] He soon realized that a hot dog business would cost more than he had, so he decided to open a sandwich shop.^[6]

On January 13, 1983, the first Jimmy John's opened in a garage in Charleston, Illinois. Paying $200 a month in rent, Liautaud could afford only used equipment consisting of a refrigerator, a chest freezer, an oven and a meat slicer.^[7]

In April 1985, Liautaud bought out his father's interest in the business, becoming the sole owner. He opened his second store in Macomb, Illinois and two years later opened his third in Champaign, Illinois. Liautaud later opened several more stores and developed a prototype before beginning franchising in 1993. The first franchise store opened in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. In 2001, the hundredth Jimmy John's store opened in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. In 2007, the five-hundredth store opened in Seattle, Washington, and in 2010 the thousandth opened in Beaverton, Oregon.^[8]

In January 2007, Liautaud sold a 33% stake to Weston Presidio, a San Francisco-based private-equity firm.^[9]

Labor relations

In 2010, when the Industrial Workers of the World attempted to unionize ten Minneapolis locations, The New York Times called the effort "one of the few efforts to organize fast-food workers in American history."^[10]

In October 2014, it was revealed that employees at Jimmy John's, including sandwich makers and delivery drivers, are required to sign non-compete agreements as a condition of employment.^[11][12] The agreement restricts the employee from working for a competitor for two years, where a competitor is defined as a business which derives more than ten percent of its revenue from selling sandwiches and is located within three miles of any Jimmy John's sandwich shop. Additionally, the employee may not work for another Jimmy John's franchisee for twelve months.^[13]

Awards

Jimmy John's was named #5 on the Entrepreneur 2014 Franchise 500.^[14] YouGov BrandIndex ranked #1 restaurant chains that have the highest millennial brand loyalty. Jimmy John's tops the ranking with 83% of the vote based on restaurants they would consider going to again.^[15] Jimmy John's was named the #2 Most Popular Restaurant for Business Meals.^[16] Entrepreneur.com named Jimmy John's one of the 10 Promising Franchises for Ambitious Entrepreneurs.^[17]

Sponsorships

In 2009 and 2010, Jimmy John's sponsored Kevin Harvick in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.^[18] In 2011, Jimmy John's and Richard Childress Racing reached a multi-year agreement to sponsor Harvick for the Sprint Cup Series. The 2014 sponsorship continued with Harvick and the Stewart-Haas Racing team.^[19] On September 13 2014, Jimmy John’s became the title sponsor of the Jimmy John’s Freaky Fast 300 at Chicagoland Speedway.^[20]

In 2015, Jimmy John's is co-sponsoring the RCH Factory Racing Supercross and Motocross team featuring Ken Roczen. The team will contest both the Monster Energy AMA Supercross and the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross championships.^[21]

In June 2015, Jimmy John's sponsored former NASCAR champion Rusty Wallace for his Speed Energy Formula Off-Road debut at the 2015 X Games.^[22]

In 2010, Jimmy John's entered an Ultimate Fighting Championship sponsorship with Brock Lesnar. Lesnar returned to the WWE in 2012, and continued his sponsorship with Jimmy John's.^[23]

See also

• List of submarine sandwich restaurants

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jimmy John's.

• Official website