Jimmy John's is a franchised sandwich restaurant owned by Jimmy John Liautaud. The restaurant was founded in 1983 and has since grown to over 875 stores, with many locations in college towns. Their headquarters is located in Champaign, Illinois.
After founder Jimmy John Liautaud graduated second to last in his class from Elgin Academy (Elgin, Illinois) in 1982, his options were joining the Army or starting a business. Having developed a well dese...
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Jimmy John's is a franchised sandwich restaurant owned by Jimmy John Liautaud. The restaurant was founded in 1983 and has since grown to over 875 stores, with many locations in college towns. Their headquarters is located in Champaign, Illinois.
After founder Jimmy John Liautaud graduated second to last in his class from Elgin Academy (Elgin, Illinois) in 1982, his options were joining the Army or starting a business. Having developed a well deserved reputation as a bully (as a grade school punk, and continuing later in high school), the natural inclination would have been to join the Army. He chose to start a business. Inspired by the Chicago area restaurant chain Portillo's, Liautaud's father lent him $25,000 to start his own hot dog business. If the business was successful, Liautaud would own 52% of it and his father would own 48%. If it failed, he would join the Army.
After Liautaud realized starting a hot dog business would cost nearly twice the amount of the loan, he decided to...
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