How Jersey Mike's Subs Grew In 2020: It Began Acting Like a Tech Company The #7 company on our Franchise 500 list relied on its customer-centric app to survive the pandemic and keep fans fed.

By Britta Lokting

This story appears in the January 2021 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »

Courtesy of Jersey Mike's Subs

When the lockdowns hit in March, business at Jersey Mike's dropped 45 percent in a week. And with fall sports on hiatus, CEO and founder Peter Cancro lost the ability to reach his football-loving customers with game-day commercials. So he went on the offensive: He shifted his marketing dollars to Fox News, NBC, CNN, and ABC.

Related: 5 Affordable Restaurant Franchises You Can Start for 5 Figures

"Everyone was watching the news, so they saw we were still open," says Cancro, who used the marketing blitz to reaffirm his small-business roots. One commercial, for instance, opens on a photo of Cancro posing with his high school football coach, Rod Smith — the banker who famously went on to lend him $125,000 to buy his original sub shop in 1975.

The quick advertising pivot helped Jersey Mike's stabilize its business and break into the top 10 of the Franchise 500 for the third consecutive year. It also proved the value of the Jersey Mike's app, which launched in 2019 to make online ordering easy. Almost overnight, third-party delivery surged to half of the company's sales. "People say Starbucks and Domino's are tech companies," says Cancro. "Well, so are we."

Related: 5 Ways to Find the Most Profitable Franchises for You

The ability to find customers wherever they go explains how Jersey Mike's managed to open more than 200 new stores last year and stay on track for a system-­wide makeover that will outfit old shops with new wall graphics, updated seating, and a customer-facing payment terminal to expedite ordering. The retrofit will run about $75,000 per franchise location, but the funds will come from the corporate coffers. Cancro set aside $150 million for the project, which falls under Jersey Mike's ethos of giving back and raising up others.

In that spirit, and in honor of the coach-banker who helped Jersey Mike's get its start, Cancro has launched the Rod Smith Ownership Program. He'll be sponsoring select entrepreneurs with $400,000 toward their first Jersey Mike's franchise.

To see our complete Franchise 500 rankings, please click here, or view more stories here.

Britta Lokting is a journalist based in New York. Her features have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post Magazine, MIT Technology Review, and elsewhere.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Social Media

AI Is Transforming the Workplace — Including Social Media Marketing. Here's How Businesses Can Actually Use It.

Artificial intelligence is transforming social media management for small and medium-sized businesses, helping them enhance scalability, improve cost efficiency and build stronger customer relationships.

Business News

Your Old Apple AirPods Can Soon Act as an Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid, According to the FDA

The new software is compatible with the Apple AirPods Pro and accessible through iOS — for free and now FDA-authorized.

Side Hustle

This 30-Year-Old's $6,000-a-Month Side Hustle Started Making Money 'Immediately' — But He's Not Quitting His Day Job

Derrick Mathy works in orthopedic surgical device sales and is on a mission to bring people together in real life.

Business Ideas

70 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2025

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2025.

Business News

'Unprecedented in Our 53-Year History': Southwest Airlines Announces Its First Mass Layoffs Ever

The airline is eliminating 15% of its corporate workforce, including many in senior leadership positions.

Business News

Elon Musk's xAI Claims Its New Grok 3 AI Is Better Than ChatGPT and DeepSeek: 'Seeing the Beginnings of Creativity'

xAI debuted the new AI on Monday, claiming it has 10 times the computational power of Grok 2.