Case Study: Jimmy John’s Culture achieves expansion to 59 locations and 1,054 employees with 7shifts

How A Jimmy John's Franchise Owner Scaled His Buisness to 59 Locations

Jimmy John’s franchisee Dan Vansteenburg scaled to 59 locations and 1,054 employees while facing the challenge of preserving the brand’s high-quality culture, keeping employees engaged, and maintaining consistent operations across a rapidly growing system.

Dan met the challenge with transparent communication (posters listing leadership phone numbers), regular 28‑day GM meetings, a online training portal ("Spin the Planet") and custom modules, clear internal career pathways (85% of managers promoted from within) and performance-based incentives (managers earn up to 25% of store profit for meeting targets). He also adopted supportive roles like the "Love, Hugs, And Smiles Guy" and operational experiments (cashless store, stronger online ordering) — measures that improved engagement, alignment, efficiency and helped him successfully scale while staying tightly aligned with the brand.

Jimmy John’s Culture

Jimmy John’s Culture

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