He bought a sandwich shop for $125,000 at the age of 17 and sold it for $8 billion.

At the age of 17, Peter Cancro purchased Mike's Subs with a $125,000 loan from his football coach, despite being too young to legally cut cold cuts at the sandwich shop in Point Pleasant, New Jersey.

Since renaming his shop Jersey Mike's Subs, it has made him a billionaire.

On Tuesday, Blackstone announced that it had agreed to purchase a majority stake in Cancro's company, valuing Jersey Mike's Subs at approximately $8 billion including debt. This transaction increased Cancro's estimated net worth to $7.5 billion, according to Bloomberg.

In 1975, he was a senior in high school who didn't want to pursue a career in business. Instead, he planned to study law and political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. However, when his mother suggested he buy the business he'd been working at since he was 14, he laughed, as he shared with Forbes in August.

He said, "the light switch went off," when he thought about it more. The restaurant owner told him he had a week to find $125,000, which Cancro shared on "The Jedburgh Podcast" in 2021.

"At 67, Cancro revealed to Forbes that he really wanted to do something, and at that age, he didn't believe he could fail."

Before graduating from high school, Cancro became the sole owner of Mike's Subs, which he secured with a loan worth nearly $750,000 from a former football coach who happened to be a banker.

Since 2019, the company has experienced an average annual sales growth of about 20%, resulting in $3.3 billion in sales in 2023, with nearly 50 years having passed since the chain had just under 3,000 locations worldwide.

'I'll put everything on the table'

Despite the challenges, the company's growth has been impressive. In 1991, four years after the company started franchising, the company faced financial difficulties due to a series of bank failures in the Northeast. As a result, the company struggled to pay its bills, and Cancro had to let go of all his corporate staff, including his brother.

1991 was my toughest recession, even beyond 2008, according to Cancro. Despite considering taking the company public or selling some of his stake, he ultimately decided not to. In 1994, the situation improved, and the chain expanded into North Carolina soon after.

In 2006, the company experienced another flatline, mainly due to the dot-com bubble burst in 2002. At the same time, the stores were showing their age, so the CEO made a risky decision to renovate them. "I said, 'I'll put everything on the table,' and we spent $15 million on the retrofits," he said on the podcast. "It was all the money we had back then."

By 2007, he stated that the company was once again on an upward trend.

'We are still in the early innings of Jersey Mike's growth'

According to Forbes, only 1% of individuals who apply for a Jersey Mike's franchise are approved. The cost of opening a store front ranges from $200,000 to $1.3 million. Despite this, the investment is worth it as traditional locations generate an average annual sales of $1.2 million, as stated on the company's website.

Jersey Mike's will retain a minority but "significant" equity stake in Cancro following the completion of the acquisition, which is expected early next year, according to the press release. Blackstone's portfolio of franchisors includes Hilton Hotels and Tropical Smoothie Café.

Cancro stated in the release that he believes Jersey Mike's growth story is still in its early stages.

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