Who says we don’t make things in America anymore?
Not Peter Cancro. He got his start making sandwiches back in 1975 when he began working at Mike’s Subs in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, in 1971 as a 14-year-old high school football player, despite being too young to legally use the meat slicers.
At 17, with his mother’s support, he bought the shop for $125,000, financed by his banker-football coach, choosing the business over college plans.
This week he just cashed in after nearly 50 years of hard work and good ole’ fashioned American elbow grease.
Now, he’s worth $7 billion. Jersey Mike’s revealed Tuesday it sold a majority stake to Blackstone Inc. in a deal valuing the chain at $8 billion. This boosts founder and CEO Cancro’s net worth to $7 billion, placing him among the world’s 500 wealthiest individuals, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Jersey Mike’s, with over $3 billion in annual revenue from its signature subs and “the juice” dressing, marks Blackstone’s third restaurant deal this year, following investments in 7 Brew and Tropical Smoothie Cafe, according to Bloomberg.
“We believe we are still in the early innings of Jersey Mike’s growth story and that Blackstone is the right partner to help us reach even greater heights,” Cancro commented.
Yeah, heights like a yacht in the Mediterranean with Eastern European models…
Last November, Cancro outlined plans to grow Jersey Mike’s to over 5,000 stores by 2028, aiming for 10,000 globally, while rival Subway, sold to Roark Capital for $9.6 billion, has nearly 37,000 locations.
Bloomberg writes that as the sole owner, Cancro will retain a minority stake post-sale and continues to personally slice and wrap sandwiches during store visits, despite never earning a college degree.
Cancro concluded: “We always had the Wall Street guys come down from New York to the Jersey Shore, and they’d always say, ‘Peter, what are you doing? You’re making subs? I’d go, ‘Well, yeah, I guess I am.’”
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