Jersey Mike’s opened its first UK restaurant on Monday 9 November, on Argyll Street just off Oxford Street in London. The US sandwich brand, which runs about 3,400 restaurants worldwide, has appointed JM Submarines UK Ltd as master franchisee for the UK and Ireland, with three more London sites due by the end of December.
The opening follows earlier trade-press reports of a development deal covering the UK and Ireland. It is the brand’s first restaurant outside North America, according to the US trade title Nation’s Restaurant News, which counts about 44 of the brand’s units in Canada. The figure for the planned UK and Ireland estate differs between outlets, as the sections below set out.
The first restaurant and the London pipeline
The Argyll Street restaurant opened to customers on 9 November. The brand marked the day with a year of free subs for the first three people in the queue, and a free regular sub for the first 50 customers, according to local news site This is Local London. Nation’s Restaurant News, which reported the debut on the same day, placed the restaurant near Oxford Circus and gave the global network as about 3,400 units.
The Local London report lists the next sites: Baker Street in mid-November, New Oxford Street near Tottenham Court Road later in the month, and Cranbourn Street, near Covent Garden and Leicester Square, in December 2026.
The master franchise and the size of the estate
JM Submarines UK Ltd holds the master franchise for the UK and Ireland. Nation’s Restaurant News describes Peter Cancro, the brand’s former owner, as chief executive of the company, while This is Local London says the UK launch is led by Satnam Leihal as chief executive. The two reports therefore name different people in that role.
On scale, Nation’s Restaurant News reports that the restaurant is the first of about 300 units planned across the UK and Ireland, beginning with four London restaurants this year. Coverage of the original agreement carried a larger figure: trade headlines cited 400 restaurants.
Good to know
A master franchisee holds the rights to develop a brand across a territory, here the UK and Ireland, and typically recruits or opens individual restaurants itself. The brand’s own count of eventual UK units is a plan, not a record of sites open.
What the brand has said
In a statement carried by Nation’s Restaurant News, Cancro said: “London is the perfect place to begin Jersey Mike’s next chapter.” Andy Skehan, the brand’s president of international, framed the choice of partner in cautious terms: “We want to make sure we get the right partner in the right market at the right time.”
All four sites named so far are in central London, and no UK site outside the capital has been named. Further announcements on the Baker Street and New Oxford Street restaurants are expected within weeks, based on the dates given for them. Fast food brands that recruit UK franchisees are grouped in the fast food franchise listings on L’Express Franchise.
