Potbelly Sandwich Shop, the popular chain with more than 425 locations across 33 states, is getting ready to enter the Jacksonville area.
The company recently signed a development agreement to bring seven restaurants to the Jacksonville area in the coming years, the company said in a news release on Monday. While it’s unclear where these locations will be, the new sites will be run by franchise owner Patrick Prendergast, who worked at Potbelly in high school in Chicago. Now, the CEO of Gold and Green Management will open at least seven locations in the greater Jacksonville area.
While these will be the first locations of Potbelly Sandwich Shop in Jacksonville, this will not be the first time the business enters Florida. The Chicago-based chain’s first of just three Florida locations opened in Tampa in June 2021, followed by another site in Tampa the next year and Orlando earlier this year, according to state licensing records reported by the Florida Times-Union. This is just the beginning for Potbelly, who announced last year that it is turning up the heat on its expansion plans in Florida.
Potbelly Corporation announced last year that it has nearly 50 locations in various stages of development throughout Florida, according to Nation’s Restaurant News. The company finalized multi-unit agreements with five franchise groups to develop 46 shops in six critical regions: Tampa, Orlando, Fort Myers, Broward County, Gainesville, and Panama City. Potbelly has a long-term goal of reaching 2,000 shops over the next ten years, with at least 85% of those locations being franchised, as part of the company’s Franchise Growth Acceleration Initiative.
“Florida as a whole holds immense promise for Potbelly, and we are strategically expanding in the Sunshine State to reach our potential,” Lynette McKee, senior vice president of franchising at Potbelly, tells Nation’s Restaurant News. “With experienced franchise groups ready to showcase the Potbelly difference, I have no doubt that we will continue to grow our loyal customer base as we bring our brand to new regions across the state.”
