for the type of container see carboy . jimmy john s franchise llc type privately held company founded 1983 ; 33 years ago 1983 founder jimmy john liautaud headquarters champaign illinois united states number of locations 2 522 june 2016 owner jimmy john liautaud website jimmyjohns.com jimmy john s owner founder & chairman jimmy john liautaud jimmy john s franchise llc is a franchised sandwich restaurant chain specializing in delivery . founded by jimmy john liautaud in 1983 and headquartered in champaign illinois in 30 years the company has grown to more than 2 500 locations 1 in 46 states . 2 jimmy john s has opened approximately 200 locations per year over the past three years . 3 as of 2014 update 98 % of the locations are franchise owned . 4 the original jimmy john s shop in charleston illinois opened january 13 1983 . contents 1 history 1.1 labor relations 2 awards 3 sponsorships 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit after jimmy john liautaud graduated second to last in his class at elgin academy 1982 his father gave him the choice to join the military or start a business . 5 liautaud eventually chose to start a business and accepted his father s 25 000 loan to start a hot dog business with the son owning 52 % of the business and his father owning 48 % . 6 he soon realized that a hot dog business would cost more than he had so he decided to open a sandwich shop . 7 8 on january 13 1983 the first jimmy john s opened in a garage in charleston illinois . paying 200 a month in rent liautaud could afford only used equipment consisting of a refrigerator a chest freezer an oven and a meat slicer . 9 the store was able to realize a profit its first year of business despite the poor location of the store due to jimmy john s willingness to deliver his sandwiches to the nearby dorms at eastern illinois university as well as his handing out free samples for marketing purposes . 2 7 in april 1985 liautaud bought out his father s interest in the business becoming the sole owner . in 1986 he opened his second store in macomb illinois and in 1987 he opened a third in champaign illinois . in 1988 liautaud met jamie coulter who would later become the ceo of lone star steakhouse & saloon . coulter mentored liautaud and taught him how to effectively run multiple units . 7 liautaud continued opening more stores and developed a prototype before beginning franchising in 1994 . franchising continued until 2002 when liautaud stopped selling franchises for one year to give support for stores that were struggling . 10 the first franchise store opened in eau claire wisconsin . in 2001 the hundredth jimmy john s store opened in mt. pleasant michigan . in 2007 the five hundredth store opened in seattle washington and in 2010 the thousandth opened in beaverton oregon . 11 cnnmoney listed jimmy john s as one of ten great franchise bets . the company estimates that annual sales can be as high as 1.2 million while net profits can average at about 280 000 . real estate start up costs are estimated to be between 305 000 and 485 500 . 9 liautaud realized that in order to grow he would need help acquiring better locations for his stores . since he had little expertise in real estate he decided to take on a partner who did . in january 2007 liautaud sold a 33 % stake to weston presidio a san francisco based private equity firm . 12 in the first year after partnering with weston presidio 100 real estate deals were closed . 7 the company has completed two recapitalizations since weston presidio s investment . 13 in the summer of 2015 pictures of liautaud posing next to the bodies of endangered big game he had killed became more widespread on social media along with increased calls to boycott jimmy john s restaurants . 2 in september 2016 jimmy john s announced that roark capital group had had agreed to acquire a majority stake in the company . terms of the transaction were not disclosed . as part of the agreement the company s founder and largest individual shareholder jimmy john liautaud will continue as chairman of the board . 14 15 labor relations edit in 2010 when the industrial workers of the world attempted to unionize ten minneapolis locations the new york times called the effort one of the few efforts to organize fast food workers in american history . 16 in october 2014 it was revealed that employees at jimmy john s including sandwich makers and delivery drivers were required to sign non compete agreements as a condition of employment . 17 18 the agreement restricted the employee from working for a competitor for two years where a competitor was defined as a business which derives more than ten percent of its revenue from selling sandwiches and is located within three miles of any jimmy john s. additionally the employee could not work for another jimmy john s franchisee for a year . 19 in june 2016 illinois attorney general lisa madigan announced that she is suing jimmy john s accusing it of improperly forcing low level employees to sign agreements preventing them from seeking jobs with competitors . madigan says jimmy john s initially said it stopped using noncompete agreements in 2015 but later said the policy change was never implemented . 20 jimmy john s responded with a statement that they had cooperated and continue to cooperate with the attorney general s inquiry having removed the offending agreements from new hire paperwork and even offering to have their ceo sign a declaration that they would never enforce the non compete agreements against any hourly employee that might have signed one . 21 awards edit jimmy john s was named 1 on the entrepreneur 2016 franchise 500 . 22 in 2014 yougov brandindex ranked restaurant chains that have the highest millennial brand loyalty and jimmy john s topped the ranking with 83 % of the vote based on restaurants they would consider going to again . 23 jimmy john s was named the 2 most popular restaurant for business meals by expense reporting program certify . 24 in 2015 entrepreneur.com named jimmy john s one of the 10 promising franchises for ambitious entrepreneurs . 25 sponsorships edit starting in 2007 jimmy john s began sponsoring nascar first with steven wallace in 2007 and 2008 . in 2009 and 2010 jimmy john s sponsored kevin harvick in the nascar nationwide series . 26 in 2011 jimmy john s and richard childress racing reached a multi year agreement to sponsor harvick for the sprint cup series . the 2014 sponsorship continued with harvick and the stewart haas racing team . 27 on september 13 2014 jimmy john s became the title sponsor of the jimmy john s freaky fast 300 at chicagoland speedway . 28 kevin harvick won the 2014 nascar sprint cup championship giving jimmy john s their first championship . in 2010 jimmy john s entered an ultimate fighting championship sponsorship with brock lesnar . lesnar returned to the wwe in 2012 and continued his sponsorship with jimmy john s. 29 in 2015 jimmy john s co sponsored the rch factory racing supercross and motocross team featuring ken roczen . the team contested both the monster energy ama supercross and the lucas oil pro motocross championships . 30 in june jimmy john s sponsored former nascar champion rusty wallace for his speed energy formula off road debut at the 2015 x games . 31 in june 2015 it was announced that jimmy john s purchased the naming rights to the utica michigan baseball stadium which is the current home of the three teams in the newly formed united shore professional baseball league . 32 jimmy john s field opened on may 30 2016 . 33 34 other jimmy john s sponsorships include the detroit red wings the chicago blackhawks & the godaddy.com bowl among many others . 35 see also edit food portal companies portal illinois portal list of submarine sandwich restaurants references edit jimmy john s sandwiches franchise information . entrepreneur.com . retrieved jun 6 2016 . a b c bomkamp samantha november 3 2015 . jimmy john s founder opens up on expansion big game hunting possible ipo . chicago tribune . retrieved june 1 2016 . qsr magazine march 30 2010 10 things you didn t know about jimmy john s . the daily meal . jun 3 2014 . retrieved jun 6 2016 . reece the abcs of success in business . northwest herald . february 19 2013 . mchenry county business journal jimmy john s born from tough love . archive.biz journal.com . retrieved june 13 2011 . a b c d success stories jimmy john liautaud . success magazine . mar 4 2009 . retrieved jun 6 2016 . 10 things you didn t know about jimmy john s facts & trivia . thrillist . may 10 2015 . retrieved jun 6 2016 . a b 10 great franchise bets jimmy john s . cnn money . june 16 2011 . retrieved jun 6 2016 . jimmy john s sandwiches business overview . franchising.com . retrieved jul 7 2016 . 1000th store . jimmy johns stake sold . chicago tribune . january 4 2007 . archived from the original on january 6 2007 . retrieved june 1 2016 . olivia oran may 26 2015 . exclusive gourmet sandwich chain jimmy john s prepares ipo sources . reuters . taylor kate 8 september 2016 . how a 19 year old turned a sandwich shop into a billion dollar business . business insider . retrieved 11 september 2016 . frost peter 8 september 2016 . arby s owner buys jimmy john s majority stake . crain s chicago business . retrieved 15 september 2016 . steven greenhouse october 20 2010 . rare vote set on a union in fast food . the new york times . jamieson dave october 13 2014 . jimmy john s makes low wage workers sign oppressive noncompete agreements . the huffington post . retrieved october 14 2014 . irwin neil october 14 2014 . when the guy making your sandwich has a noncompete clause . the new york times . retrieved october 14 2014 . employee confidentiality and non competition agreement pdf . huffington post . september 19 2014 . retrieved october 14 2014 . illinois sues jimmy john s over noncompete agreements . chicago sun times . il ag files lawsuit against jimmy john s alleging unfair labor practices . june 8 2016 . 2016 top franchises from entrepreneur s franchise 500 list . entrepreneur . retrieved 2016 07 07 . ashley lutz . 5 restaurant chains millennials love . business insider australia . retrieved january 30 2016 . can you guess the most popular restaurant for business meals . bisnow . retrieved january 30 2016 . 10 promising franchises for ambitious entrepreneurs . entrepreneur . retrieved 2016 01 06 . jimmy john s jumps on board with khi . hardcoreracefans.com . february 10 2009 . retrieved june 13 2011 . jimmy john s to sponsor harvick in 2014 . nascar . september 24 2013 . retrieved september 24 2013 . jimmy john s folds of honor . retrieved july 30 2014 . the pro wrestling post wwe stock lesnar s sponsors and tna bellator working together . mmapayout.com . ken roczen signs with rch racing . may 2015 . fryer jenna april 2 2015 . rusty wallace to compete in off road truck race at x game . abc news . archived from the original on april 3 2015 . retrieved april 2 2015 . bill shea june 23 2015 . jimmy