When Blackstone bought a majority stake in Jersey Mike's Subs early last year for about $6 billion plus debt, the private-equity firm didn't want to mess with the quality of the chain's beloved sandwiches. It still worked through a to-do list that included everything from menu changes to reining in corporate expenses.

Now, 18 months later, Jersey Mike's short-lived journey as a nonpublic, private equity owned company is coming to an end. The company is set to debut under the ticker "JMKE" on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday at a valuation of around $8 billion. It and existing investors are selling up to $1.09 billion of shares in what is to be one of the largest U.S. restaurant IPOs in years.

Blackstone's leveraged buyout saddled Jersey Mike's with about $500 million in additional debt, bringing the total to $2.1 billion and boosting its annual interest expenses to $104 million in 2025 from $43 million in 2024.

Investors don't seem bothered by the company's debt load; demand for its shares in the offering far outweighed supply, according to people familiar with the matter.

A team of roughly a dozen Blackstone dealmakers and executives focused on readying Jersey Mike's for an IPO over the past year and a half, another person familiar with the matter said.

While private-equity firms typically hold investments for much longer periods, the team felt the business was already close to camera-ready when the firm bought it. It also wanted to take advantage of investors' voracious appetite for new stock offerings.

One of the biggest changes Blackstone made was hiring former Wingstop Chief Executive Officer Charlie Morrison as CEO. The restaurant veteran led Wingstop when it went public in 2015 after private-equity ownership, and helped it boost sales and grow internationally. Morrison has recruited other executives to Jersey Mike's, including former Wingstop colleagues and some from other private equity backed chains, such as Krispy Kreme.

Blackstone worked with Morrison to formulate a plan for Jersey Mike's to offer its first hot Italian sub, which has been a hit. They also brought back a chicken-salad promotion to broaden its customer base.

The founder, Peter Cancro, had led Jersey Mike's since launching it with a single Jersey Shore sub shop in 1975. He retained a roughly 10% stake after selling a majority stake to Blackstone in a deal that was valued at around $8 billion including debt.

Blackstone removed expenses typical of founder-owned businesses. It carved a $41 million private jet out of its purchase and cut discretionary bonuses and donations to $11 million in 2025 from $192 million the previous year.

Several family members of Cancro left the company's corporate payroll leading up to the IPO. Nine of Cancro's family members, including his wife, sons, daughter and brother, received compensation in recent years, according to the IPO filing.

The chain added hundreds of new locations during Blackstone's ownership and plans to expand to 15,000 restaurants from the 3,300 it operated at the end of March, the IPO filing showed. Only a handful of the company's stores are outside the U.S., and executives believe they can grow internationally as rival Subway has.

Jersey Mike's systemwide sales last year were $4.3 billion. It was the second-largest sub-style sandwich company in the U.S. by sales, behind Subway, which has around 19,000 locations in the U.S. and more than 30,000 globally.

Jersey Mike's has outpaced Subway and other competitors in growth, with its U.S. sales more than tripling since 2019, according to Technomic. The average domestic Jersey Mike's location did $1.36 million in sales last year, compared with $510,000 for Subway.

The private-equity firm Roark Capital purchased Subway for around $9.4 billion in 2024 and has introduced new value deals and expanded internationally in such markets as Azerbaijan and Taiwan.

Consumers have given Jersey Mike's top marks in restaurant surveys, ranking it high for quality, taste and order accuracy. The company has said that its consumers skew affluent and haven't pulled back their spending as much as customers have at some other chains.

That hasn't stopped some people from posting pictures and videos on social media of scrawny sandwiches, accusing the company of skimping on meat portions since Blackstone got involved. Blackstone has said such accusations aren't true.

Jersey Mike's has high profit margins compared with other restaurant chains, but its debt levels are high when compared with other franchised peers, according to the Wall Street research firm Gordon Haskett.

Blackstone , which manages around $1.3 trillion, plans to continue holding the majority of the company's voting power and shares after the IPO, according to the filing. It is selling some of its shares in the offering, along with other investors including the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

Private-equity sponsors typically wind down their positions gradually over several years following an initial public offering.