Jreck Subs Prepares for New Ownership

The Jrecks Sandwich chain will soon be getting new owners. A judge ruled that the current owners cannot bid on the chain’s franchise rights. 

The U.S. Marshals Service has been running the chain for about four months after the former owner was sentenced to 12 ½ years for tax evasion and tax fraud. 

A handful out of the 40 overall North Country restaurants – Canton, Potsdam, Massena, etc-have filed a notice stating that they ended their agreement with the Jrecks Sub franchisor. 

Orienta Investors LLC, a part-owner in Jrecks, contested the chain’s decision and brought the claim to a judge.

With the recent change in leadership, employees question whether their restaurants will be affected. 

An employee of Jrecks’ Canton location, Abby Hollis, said that she believes that although this news is “kind of surprising,” she also doesn’t believe anything is changing. 

Overall, Hollis thinks her chain will be completely unaffected. While some employees have a more optimistic approach to the situation, others blame the former owner, Christopher M. Swartz, for the changes ahead. 

“I think it’s irresponsible as an owner to do that, he should have been more responsible,” says another employee of Jrecks Canton location, Zachary Morris. 

Morris also goes on to say that the Canton owner, “is very responsible and he would never do anything like that to jeopardize our jobs.”

Canton residents are also concerned about the future of Jrecks. “It’s bad because we don’t have a lot of small businesses, like restaurants and stuff, cause a lot have closed down in the last few years…So it sucks,” says local Canton resident and Pub 56 bartender, Jacob Oatman.

The U.S. Marshals Service was accepting bids for the rights to the Jrecks franchise until the first week of November. 

Each bidder has to submit the required forms and a $100,000 deposit by Oct. 7. The Marshals have since received 11 total bids.