The Sackett family Sandwich Squad is on appetite patrol in downtown Lexington. Sandwich Squad, Inc., the local Jimmy John's franchisee owned by brothers, Matt, Todd and Rob Sackett and partner Billy White, have chosen Main & Rose, the new mixed-use development in downtown Lexington as the location for their sixth shop in the market.
"We're very excited about locating downtown," said Matt Sackett. "Store number 75, the Limestone location caters, to the campus and downtown both. What opening downtown will do for us is allow the Limestone location to concentrate on campus and let the Main Street location concentrate on downtown so we can give better service."
The Sacketts are coming
Flashback to Champaign, Ill.: The year is 1998. Matt Sackett has just graduated from college and is searching for a career. As it happened, Jimmy John's, the hometown gourmet submarine sandwich chain, had a store for sale in Lexington. Matt, older brother Robb, and their father called and made an appointment to meet with founder, Jimmy John Liautaud. "When we had our first meeting with Jimmy John ten years ago, he asked where I wanted to go, and it certainly didn't matter to me - single, no strings attached. He suggested that we come to Lexington. Well, my sister went to school here at UK and married a guy from Frankfort, so I said, 'That's perfect!'"
With Robb and his wife handling finances, Matt Sackett took over the shop nudging the UK campus and has since grown the business into a profit center for the budding family franchise group. Among the more than 1,000 Jimmy John's shops nationwide, 32 stores did over $1 million in 2007, and the Limestone shop was among them - and not only in 2007, but in each of the past four years.
The brothers bought a second location on Tiverton, and Matt soon found himself without enough hours in a day. So a call went out to brother Todd back up in Champagne, inviting him to join the family business. "It just made way too much sense," Todd recalled. Todd made the move and now serves as general manager of the Andover store, with brother Matt overseeing the five other shops around Lexington. That arrangement, Todd explained, will soon change. "As each new store opens, I've been moving to that store to get it on its feet. So I will be going to Main & Rose. After Main & Rose is up and going good, Matt and I will each take over three stores and go in and do the auditing. We'll split them up, and those will be our babies. I guess we'll be area managers. That's the term corporate calls it."
Plans call for the expansion to continue. "We do have an area development agreement to build at least two more stores in the area. When that will be, we're not sure," advised Robb Sackett.
There should be no shortage of Sacketts to keep that growth within the family for some time to come. Sister Autumn Lynn of Frankfort has two children; two cousins from Chicago followed Autumn Lynn to Kentucky, got married and had children; their parents (Todd's aunt and uncle) relocated here, as well. In fact, the inductions are already underway. The husband of one of the cousins is a local Jimmy John's manager.
Fit-up of the new Main & Rose shop is underway and will open on April 1, employing 20-25.
So, who is this Jimmy John guy?
You would think a fellow with two first names would have to be from around these parts. Think again.
The first Jimmy John's was opened in Charleston, Ill. It was 1983 and as Jimmy John Liautaud had in the previous year wrapped up a high school career that was by his own description "rebellious," leaving him second from the bottom of his graduating class, his father gave him three options: join the Army, go to college, or start a business.
Regarding the first two options out of the question, Liautaud chose business.
Liautaud's father loaned him $25,000 to start his own hot dog business. If the business was successful, he would own 52 percent of it and his father, 48 percent. If it failed, it would be off to the Army for Jimmy John Liautaud. He soon discovered, however, that he would need twice the dollars his father had loaned him to start the hot dog business. The obvious alternative (to Liautaud, at least) was a sandwich shop. And according to a neighbor, the secret to success in sandwiches is the bread.
Liautaud hit the books, and experimenting with bread making in his mother's kitchen, came up with what would become his signature french bread recipe. The next step was to buy the most expensive meats from a local deli and concoct six sandwiches. Family members were invited to a tasting and asked to vote on the top four. The business took off from there, and by 1985, Liautaud was in a position to buy out his father's share of the business.
He opened several additional shops and by 1993 was ready to begin franchising. Jimmy John's has since expanded to over 1,000 stores in 36 states. The Sacketts' Limestone Street shop was the chain's 75th location. Main & Rose will become its 1,064th. And therein lies the main attraction to franchisees like the Sackett brothers.
"The growth. There is excitement around the brand," said Robb Sackett. "The food is great, the fast delivery. But mostly the aura is about the brand."
About 95 percent of the current restaurants are franchise-owned. Liautaud now owns 67 percent of the company, selling a 33 percent stake in January 2007 to the San Francisco-based private-equity firm Weston Presidio.
In an interview with Chicago Business, Liautaud said his success is not the result of a complex business plan, but rather a byproduct of his zest for sandwich-making. "I really believed that if people would taste them, they would eat them, and I got lucky - it happened."
Joining Jimmy John's in the Main & Rose location will be a Dunkin' Donuts. At press time, the franchisee had not received corporate clearance to discuss the project.