A mature, traditional Jersey Mike’s unit may produce about $136,000 to $298,000 of annual Store-level EBITDA, with a base calculation of $208,936 at the 2025 Item 19 median Unit Volume. This is a pre-interest, pre-tax, pre-depreciation operating proxy—not after-tax take-home pay. If an active owner truly replaces a paid food-service manager, the conditional owner-operator benefit rises to roughly $199,000–$361,000 because it includes the market value of the owner’s labor.
This range is an independent analytical scenario, not an Item 19 financial performance representation by A Sub Above, LLC. It combines identified 2026 FDD facts with a separately identified same-brand SEC preliminary-prospectus operating metric, a BLS wage benchmark, and explicit scenario assumptions. Actual results can differ materially by location, store format, sales, food costs, labor, occupancy, financing, owner involvement, and execution.
What evidence supports the estimate?
Legal franchisor: A Sub Above, LLC.
FDD: 2026, issued April 10, 2026.
Item 19 status: Unit Volume only; no owner profit or compensation disclosure.
Applicable cohort: U.S. Traditional Franchised Restaurants operating more than 360 days in 2025.
Supplemental evidence: July 2, 2026 Jersey Mike’s Subs Inc. preliminary prospectus; BLS May 2024 manager wages.
Date checked: July 21, 2026.
2025 sales measure for the included traditional franchised cohort; revenue, not earnings.
Same-brand 2025 margin after royalties and advertising, reported in the SEC preliminary prospectus.
FDD median Unit Volume multiplied by the same-brand 16% Store-level Margin.
Traditional franchised restaurants included in the 2025 Item 19 population.
Current 6.5% royalty plus 1% corporate and 4% national advertising contributions.
May 2024 median wage for food-service managers in food services and drinking places.
What does Jersey Mike’s Item 19 actually report?
The official 2026 FDD reports Unit Volume, not owner earnings, operating profit, EBITDA, net income, or owner compensation. Its 2025 measurement period ran from January 1 through December 28, 2025 and covered 2,606 Traditional Franchised Restaurants operated by third-party franchisees for more than 360 days.
“Unit Volume” is a sales measure after specified taxes, refunds, discounts, coupons, and donations. It cannot be read as salary, distributions, or cash available to an owner.
| Item 19 measure | 2025 result | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Average Unit Volume | $1,367,578 | Arithmetic mean for the included cohort. |
| Median Unit Volume | $1,305,850 | Central restaurant; half were above and half below. |
| Highest Unit Volume | $3,228,616 | Observed high, not an attainable target for a new buyer. |
| Lowest Unit Volume | $512,332 | Observed low within the included mature cohort. |
| At or above the average | 1,148 / 44% | Shows why the average should not be treated as typical. |
| Population coverage | 2,606 / 3,227 | 80.8% of the covered U.S. restaurant population. |
Source: A Sub Above, LLC, 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document, Item 19, pp. 51–52. The FDD excluded 583 restaurants open fewer than 361 days, eight without the designated point-of-sale system, 13 nontraditional restaurants, and 17 company-, affiliate-, or insider-operated restaurants.
A mature-store result does not describe the ramp-up year
Item 20 reported 259 franchised openings and 13 units that ceased operations for other reasons in 2025, while Item 19 excluded 583 younger restaurants. The published sales distribution therefore says more about established traditional units than a newly opened store’s first year. Transfers also matter: Item 20 listed 218 franchised outlets transferred to new owners during 2025.
How was the annual earnings range estimated?
The estimate applies a 13%–19% Store-level Margin sensitivity to revenue at 80%–120% of the FDD median Unit Volume. The 16% center is an official same-brand supplemental metric, but the low and high revenue and margin bands are editorial assumptions—not outcomes disclosed in Item 19.
The Jersey Mike’s Subs Inc. July 2026 SEC preliminary prospectus defines Store-level EBITDA as net store revenue less cost of goods sold, labor, occupancy, royalties, advertising fees, and other store operating expenses. It reports a 16% Store-level Margin for fiscal 2025 after royalties and advertising fees. The figures were self-reported by franchise owners and were not independently verified; the prospectus does not disclose a sample count or owner-role split for that margin.
- Revenue: $1,044,680, $1,305,850, and $1,567,020, equal to 80%, 100%, and 120% of the FDD median. The 80/100/120 spread is analytical, not FDD-reported.
- Margin: 13%, 16%, and 19%, using the same-brand 16% margin with a three-percentage-point sensitivity on each side. A percentage-point change is not the same as a percentage change.
- Expense treatment: Food, labor, occupancy, royalty, advertising, and other normal store operating expenses are included in the Store-level EBITDA definition. Interest, personal income tax, depreciation, amortization, replacement capital spending, and financing principal are not deducted.
- Rounding: Calculations use full-precision inputs and are rounded to the nearest $1,000 in scenario displays.
| Scenario | Modeled Unit Volume | Store-level Margin | Store-level EBITDA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | $1,044,680 | 13% | $136,000 |
| Base | $1,305,850 | 16% | $209,000 |
| Upside | $1,567,020 | 19% | $298,000 |
Store-level EBITDA is compared with a conditional owner-operator benefit that adds the BLS manager wage only when the owner replaces a paid manager.
Interpretation: Owner operation changes the economic benefit only when the owner performs work that would otherwise require paid management. The added amount is compensation for labor, not passive business profit. Sources: A Sub Above, LLC, 2026 FDD, Item 15, pp. 41–42; same-brand SEC preliminary prospectus filed July 2, 2026; BLS Food Service Managers wage data.
Is the owner-operator figure business profit or pay for work?
It is a combined owner-operator benefit, not pure business profit. The 2026 FDD requires direct on-premises supervision by the owner or controlling principal, or—when more than one restaurant is operated—by a competent full-time manager or shift supervisor. The owner, controlling principal, or approved manager generally must devote full-time energy and best efforts to operations.
The manager-run scenario assumes normal manager compensation sits inside the labor expense included in Store-level EBITDA. The owner-operator scenario adds the BLS food-services manager median wage of $63,040 only when an active owner genuinely replaces that paid role. It does not add payroll taxes, benefits, or a local wage premium.
- Manager-run Store-level EBITDA
- Residual operating earnings after listed store expenses, including labor, but before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization, capital spending, and financing principal.
- Owner-operator benefit
- Manager-run Store-level EBITDA plus the supported market value of manager labor performed by the owner. Part of the total compensates the owner for working in the restaurant.
- Distributions or draw
- Cash taken from the business. It may differ from accounting profit because of working capital, reserves, debt payments, tax distributions, and capital expenditures.
- After-tax take-home pay
- Not estimated. It depends on entity structure, jurisdiction, deductions, debt, and the owner’s personal circumstances.
The SEC margin does not identify owner-operated versus manager-run stores
The published 16% Store-level Margin may reflect a mix of operating arrangements. If some reporting restaurants did not record market-rate owner labor in payroll, adding a full manager wage could double-count part of the benefit. A buyer should therefore test the owner-operator adjustment against actual franchisee payroll and owner-compensation practices.
How much do disclosed franchise charges absorb at median sales?
At the Item 19 median Unit Volume, current percentage-based royalty and advertising contributions total about $150,173 per year; selected fixed technology and program charges add about $5,332. The resulting illustrated total is approximately $155,505 before transaction-based online ordering, delivery, payment-processing, optional services, and other operating costs.
The 2026 FDD lists a 6.5% continuing royalty, a current 1% Corporate Advertising and Development Fund contribution, and a 4% National Media Fund contribution. The same-brand 16% Store-level Margin already states that royalties and advertising are deducted, so subtracting these charges again from the scenario would double-count them.
Illustration at $1,305,850 of Unit Volume; rounded labels show annual dollars.
Interpretation: The royalty and two advertising funds equal 11.5% of Gross Receipts before the fixed charges shown. Selected fixed charges use the current monthly point-of-sale support, secure network, and gift-card program fees. Source: A Sub Above, LLC, 2026 FDD, Item 6, pp. 10–16. Transaction-based, optional, and future-variable charges are excluded.
What could move actual owner earnings outside the range?
The largest unresolved uncertainty is the restaurant-specific expense structure behind the 16% Store-level Margin. The same-brand disclosure is stronger than a generic restaurant benchmark, but it supplies no distribution, sample count, owner-role split, occupancy range, labor range, or food-cost range. A single systemwide margin can therefore conceal large unit-level variation.
- Sales mix and local demand: Item 19’s observed Unit Volume ran from $512,332 to $3,228,616. The scenario uses a narrower analytical spread and should not be read as the full possible range.
- Labor and owner compensation: Local wages, scheduling efficiency, manager depth, overtime, and whether an owner salary is recorded can materially change residual earnings.
- Occupancy: Rent, common-area maintenance, property taxes, insurance, and lease escalation are site-specific and can outweigh small changes in royalty or technology fees.
- Financing: Store-level EBITDA is before interest and financing principal. Leveraged buyers can have substantially less distributable cash even when operations match the scenario.
- Capital spending: Depreciation is excluded from EBITDA, but equipment replacement, repairs, remodels, and technology upgrades require real cash.
- Format and maturity: The FDD cohort is traditional and mature. Nontraditional venues, drive-thru or standalone configurations, and young units should be modeled separately rather than blended into this range.
Why the $1.3 million median does not equal owner income
The FTC’s consumer guide to buying a franchise cautions buyers to distinguish gross sales from profit and to examine the assumptions, sample, and substantiation behind earnings claims. The Census NAICS definition for Limited-Service Restaurants confirms that sandwich and sub shops belong to the relevant operating category, but industry classification alone cannot determine a Jersey Mike’s owner’s margin.
What should a buyer verify before relying on this estimate?
A buyer should reconstruct owner cash flow from actual franchisee profit-and-loss statements rather than relying on Unit Volume or a systemwide Store-level Margin alone. The most useful checks are specific to the proposed market, format, owner role, debt structure, and unit age.
- Request the written Item 19 substantiation and reconcile its 2025 Unit Volume definitions, eligible population, and exclusions to the proposed store format.
- Interview several current and former franchisees listed in Item 20, including mature single-unit operators, manager-run multi-unit owners, recent openings, and transferred locations.
- Obtain trailing 24- to 36-month unit P&Ls showing food and packaging, hourly labor, manager compensation, occupancy, royalties, advertising, technology, delivery, repairs, and insurance.
- Ask whether owner salary is included in labor expense and whether the reported Store-level EBITDA normalizes owner compensation.
- Model interest, financing principal, working-capital needs, equipment replacement, and remodel reserves separately from Store-level EBITDA.
- Compare the proposed lease and local wage market with the actual stores used in franchisee interviews; do not substitute national averages when local contracts are available.
What is the strongest defensible annual earnings view?
The strongest defensible range is $136,000–$298,000 of estimated annual Store-level EBITDA for a mature traditional unit, with a $208,936 base at the FDD median Unit Volume. It is a Mode C scenario, not an official Item 19 owner-earnings figure. A conditional active-owner benefit of $199,000–$361,000 includes $63,040 of manager labor value and therefore is not passive profit.
The principal earnings drivers are Unit Volume and the all-in Store-level Margin. The largest unresolved uncertainty is whether the published 16% margin and labor line are representative of the exact market, lease, manager structure, and owner-compensation practice being considered. Before making a decision, verify the Item 19 substantiation, obtain unit-level P&Ls, and test the model through franchisee interviews—especially with operators whose format and owner role match the proposed restaurant.