Jersey Mike’s $12 billion IPO submitting: $50 million payday for founder’s stepson and a $41 million jet

The sandwich chain’s Form S-1 prospectus filed last week shows Cancro’s stepson Phillip Sivolobov received $50.5 million in compensation from the restaurant between 2023 and 2025. Cancro’s brother John Cancro received about $21 million in compensation over the same period and brother-in-law Daniel Powers amassed more than $31 million from fiscal 2024 to 2025. According to the filings, the family members were “employed by the Company in various roles.” They did not receive any payment from the company in the 13 weeks leading up to March 29, the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2026.

The filings also show that, connected to Blackstone, a New York-based alternative asset management firm, acquiring a majority stake in the company in 2024, a $41 million aircraft was transferred to an entity controlled by Cancro. The company paid Cancro $166,666.66 per month in light of air travel-related business expenses, which amounted to about $2 million in 2025 to cover air transportation.

Cancro also personally controls through an entity the master franchise rights for 300 Jersey Mike’s locations in the U.K. and Ireland, a hint at the company’s plans to expand internationally.

Cancro stepped down as CEO in April 2025. Jersey Mike’s is now helmed by Charlie Morrison, who previously served as CEO of Wingstop.

Jersey Mike’s is among the fastest-growing restaurant chains in the U.S. with nearly 3,300 North America locations, making it the second-largest sandwich chain in the country behind Subway. Its IPO filing reported a 50% increase in cumulative same-store sales from 2020 through 2025, as well as a net income of $55 million on $724 million in total revenue last year. That’s compared to a net income of $5 million on $653 million in revenue the year before.

What does it mean for Jersey Mike’s to go public?

The sandwich chain is valued at approximately $12 billion, meaning its IPO would be among the largest in recent restaurant history: Inspire Brands, the parent company of Dunkin’ and Buffalo Wild Wings, is targeting a $20 billion valuation after confidentially filing for an IPO in May.

Jersey Mike’s will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under “JMKE”.

The year of the IPO

This year has marked a wave of IPOs, punctuated with SpaceX’s record-crushing IPO last month. With Anthropic and OpenAI similarly planning to go public imminently, there’s a sense of confidence and optimism in the markets that has spilled over to other industries.

Cancro appears to have similar optimism. He has been involved in the chain for 50 years, working at a Jersey Shore sub shop in 1971, when he was 14 years-old, then buying Mike’s Subs four years later, changing the name of the restaurant and franchising it soon after.  

After selling the majority of the company to Blackstone for $8 billion, Cancro retained “meaningful equity” in the chain and sits on the company’s board. He said in a letter to shareholders included in the filing that CEO Morrison and Blackstone will help scale the brand in the coming years.

″Their experience with leading franchisors aligns with the values and long-term mindset that have shaped Jersey Mike’s and will help continue our expansion in the United States and abroad,” Cancro wrote.