By opening a second Jimmy John’s sandwich restaurant in Warsaw, owners Josh Grannell and Logan Todd hope to widen their delivery area.
The new location will open in mid to late January at 2301 E. Center St. after corporate does a final inspection Jan. 11 and gives its approval. Grannell and Todd plan to hire about 30 people for the new business and are taking applications and conducting interviews now.
Grannell and Todd opened their first Jimmy John’s June 12, 2012, at 1979 N. Detroit St., and then opened TG’s, a frozen yogurt shop, at 1991 N. Detroit St. on May 13, 2013.
“Living over here for a few years, you just notice how hard it is to get across town, so it’s almost like two separate markets – you have the East side of Warsaw and the West side of Warsaw,” Todd replied when asked why they decided to open up a second Jimmy John’s.
Grannell said, “We took a look at some of the other franchises here in town. There’s multiples of everything – six Subways within a five- to seven-mile radius; you have three Penguin Points …”
“Three McDonald’s, multiple Arby’s,” Todd interjected.
“And Taco Bells,” Grannell said. “We also, at least for me … we lived on this side of town and when we’ve gone out to eat – whether it was through this Taco Bell or Wendy’s drive through – you ask them if they had Jimmy John’s before, they just say, ‘No, we haven’t. It’s on the other side of town.’”
He said that made them “feel like this was a market that is underserved as far as Jimmy John’s is concerned. So we thought, ‘Let’s put one on the other side and see what happens.’”
Grannell said they still have some nervousness over how well they will do because it’s a new business.
Todd said the new location will expand their delivery range, too.
“There’s still a lot of people on this side of town – hopefully, we’ll get some of Winona, the Grace area, the hospital area – just kind of widen the delivery range to make a little more people happier,” Todd said.
Corporate will set the new location’s delivery area the day before it opens, he confirmed.
“The hospital is in our back yard, so that’s a shoe-in,” Grannell said, but Grace College is kind of spread out so it and Winona Lake are still “up in the air.”
“We’re hoping to get to DePuy as well, ideally. But really, that’s something that’s out of our control and we’ll know right before we open,” Todd said.
The menu and “freaky fast” delivery will still be the same as the other location, but the building on Center Street is a different design. It has different colors, tiles, seating and layout but “same great service,” Todd said. It also has seating for more than two dozen customers, more than the Detroit Street location.
He said they worked closely with their landlord, Jim Katris, on the building’s construction. “He was nice enough to build us a shell that we could occupy,” Todd said.
“This is something, too, we’ve wanted to do for a long time. This was probably about two years ago that we said we wanted to open up another one, but at the time there wasn’t an existing building here and there really wasn’t any decent location to put a second one,” Grannell said.
They were put in touch with Katris who offered them a location to build on.
“That whole process took a lot longer than we thought,” Grannell said. “We’re anxious to get this baby open and start serving more customers.”
To serve those customers, Todd said they are doing “extensive” hiring.
“Anyone can come in at any time at our current shop and basically get an interview on the spot if they ask,” he said.
They are looking for day- and night-time help, drivers and in-shop employees.
“We’re looking to hire 30-plus people,” Todd said.
“We’re hiring with a chance for employees to advance,” Grannell added. “Employees certainly can do that.”
He said jimmyjohns.com has applications that can be printed off, or a person can stop by the Detroit Street shop to pick an application up.
A major need is manager first and second assistants and those will be hired first, Grannell said. Todd said drivers also will be a priority and they must be 18 years old, but in-shop workers can be 16.
With an existing store, Grannell said employees will be trained there before the new location opens.
Both men said having opened one business, they’ve learned a lot to help them open a second one.
“What have we learned? That you can never have enough employees,” Grannell said.
“How important staffing is, finding quality help is hard to come by,” Todd said.
“We’ve learned that you’ve always got to be on your toes,” Grannell said, and to make the best of what you have and adjust as necessary.
(Story By The Times Union)
