Burlington diners will soon have a new entrée on the menu to choose from, as part of a planned expansion in the North Carolina market and five other states.
Potbelly Sandwich Works is planning to open a sandwich shop in Burlington next year, in addition to the company’s eight existing North Carolina locations in Cary, Charlotte, Durham, Raleigh, and Wilmington, Callie Chambers, a marketing consultant who’s assisting the company, confirmed Wednesday for The Alamance News.
The Burlington shop will be one of six franchise locations that Potbelly plans to open in the Piedmont-Triad region in 2025.
“With on-site support from Potbelly’s development team, Dion and Keish Hilliard are reviewing the market to select the appropriate real estate for their Potbelly Sandwich Shops,” a company official added on Wednesday. “With a six-shop commitment in portions of the Winston-Salem market, including Burlington, their first opening is slated for late 2025.”
A potential leased location and date for opening the Burlington shop are still being worked out, Chambers said.
Overall, the company’s “Franchise Growth Acceleration Plan” calls for expanding the publicly-traded Potbelly brand by 32 additional locations over the next eight years, with a goal of reaching 2,000 locations, of which 85 percent are franchises. Potbelly recently inked an agreement with a franchisee, Royal Restaurant Group, to open the first Potbelly shops in Georgia, with 15 planned for the Atlanta market.
Founded in Chicago in 1977, Potbelly describes itself as a “neighborhood sandwich concept” that has been serving up warm sandwiches, such as the Sweet Heat Pork BBQ and Cubano, along with signature salads, hand-dipped shakes, and fresh menu items. There are currently more than 425 Potbelly shops, 80 of which are franchises, throughout the country.
In addition to North Carolina and Georgia, Potbelly has announced plans to open multiple locations in other southern states that include Virginia and Texas.
