Jersey Mike's London is set to open its first shop on Argyll Street on Monday, November 9, starting a planned UK and Ireland expansion. For customers, that means a new sandwich option lands in a market where Subway already has a far bigger footprint.
400 locations is the target Jersey Mike's has laid out for the UK and Ireland, a scale that turns the London opening into more than a single store launch. The company already has more than 3,300 locations in the US and Canada, but this move takes it beyond North America for the first time.
Peter Cancro and the first shop
14 was the age Peter Cancro began working at a sub shop in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, before buying the business when he was 17 and turning it into Jersey Mike's. That origin still matters because the brand's push into London is being sold around a simple chain story: one shop, then a larger footprint if the first opening draws enough demand.
1956 is where Jersey Mike's roots go back, giving the chain a longer history than its London debut might suggest. The first Argyll Street shop is the practical test of whether that history can translate into a UK format that customers understand quickly enough to support a wider rollout.
Subway's 37,000-store scale
37,000 locations around the world keeps Subway in a different league, even as Jersey Mike's is positioned as the fresher challenger. Subway first expanded outside the US in 1984, opened its first shop outside the US in Bahrain, and entered the UK market in Brighton in 1996.
2024 also matters because both Jersey Mike's and Subway have been owned by private equity firms since then, putting the two chains under similar financial pressure to grow and prove the format. In practice, that means London customers are not just getting another sandwich shop; they are seeing a brand with a much smaller international base try to gain ground against a rival that has spent decades building scale.
What London customers can watch
2026 brought another piece of context when Jersey Mike's was named America's highest-rated fast-food chain for customer satisfaction in the American Customer Satisfaction Index. The company team in the UK says the offer centers on “quality” meats and cheeses, a claim that will now be judged on Argyll Street rather than in North America.
Monday, November 9 is the date that matters for London customers, because the first opening will show whether Jersey Mike's can convert a strong domestic reputation into a repeatable UK format. Will Jersey Mike's actually deliver the planned 400 locations in the UK and Ireland after its first London opening?
