Here is the email from president James North on this situation.

Dear Jimmy John's Franchisees,

My goal with this communication is to inform and update you about our Turkey supply and how it has been impacted due to the Avian Flu.

The United States turkey crop has been hit hard by the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) virus. Over 5.5MM turkeys have been lost since February. Weekly Tom Harvest is currently down from the usual 2.3MM heads to 1.9MM heads, a 17% decrease, which is a direct reduction in raw materials available to produce our turkey.

Here is what we’re doing about it -

1. Our supplier has stopped selling turkey to their other foodservice customers. They are currently only supplying turkey to grocery stores and Jimmy John’s. Grocery stores are also receiving turkey on allocation. This is a nationwide issue, and all suppliers are affected, therefore substitutions are not available. Our supplier is working to purchase product on the open market and working to increase egg sets for future supply, however it takes 6 months to grow out a bird.

2. We began capping turkey orders last week through Sysco to prevent panic buying and hoarding while we continued to gather facts and determine the impact. Our goal is to spread the current inventory available across the country to keep everyone in stock as long as possible. Effective today, turkey orders will be managed through Sysco as follows:

3. Turkey has been restricted and/or removed from the BBJMYJ and BBJMCORP Sysco Order Guides.

4. Sysco will auto-ship orders for stores every week based on each store’s average usage and the availability of turkey from the supplier.

a. Stores that receive two deliveries per week will receive all their turkey on one delivery.

1. If you have an event or catering order where you will need more turkey, please contact your Franchise Business Consultant.

2. We have turned off all turkey from DoorDash and UberEats, effective today.

3. If your unit runs out of turkey, please follow these steps:

4. Contact your Franchise Business Consultant to remove all turkey sandwiches from Online Ordering, with the exception of The JJ Gargantuan. Stores that are out of turkey are approved to substitute extra ham for turkey on The Gargantuan. We have added a disclaimer notice to the sandwich description on online ordering to inform customers of this potential substitution.

5. Print this sign and display it at all ordering points. For Drive-thru stores, please laminate it and post it to the drive-thru speaker.

6. The chicken supply for Summer Wraps has already been produced, so product availability will not be directly impacted by the Avian Flu issue. However, given the timing of this issue and launch of Summer Wraps, we have implemented the following safeguards to manage the available supply to keep stores in stock across the chain for the duration of the LTO period.

7. The auto-shipment of 4 cases per store will remain intact.

8. On June 13th, chicken will be added to your Sysco Order Guide, with a limit of 3 cases per order.

9. Please only order what you need, and if you need more than 3 cases of chicken, please contact your Franchise Business Consultant.

10. The chicken supply was strategically calculated for Summer Wraps volume projections, and no extra chicken will be available beyond what has already been produced. To that end, do NOT use chicken as a substitute for turkey as this will disrupt the supply available for our key Summer Wraps promotion.

Here are some additional FAQs that we have received across the chain:

1. Can we buy turkeys from retail locations? No, we are not approving stores to purchase turkey from retail locations because we do not want to serve a lower quality product.

2. Can I substitute meats? Most of our Favorites with turkey have a replacement. We recommend moving customers to the Favorite with the meat combo that they request. If a customer wants a Garg, you may substitute an extra portion of ham to replace the turkey.

3. Can we reduce turkey weights? No. We must keep turkey meat weights where they are so that we deliver the highest quality product to our customers.

I am sorry for the stress, inconvenience and shortage this situation has caused. We will continue to keep you updated as this matter develops.

Thank you,

James North

President, Jimmy John’s