Papa John’s

About Papa John’s

The fourth largest pizza restaurant delivery chain in the US, Papa John’s was founded in 1984 by ‘Papa’ John Schnatter, in the back of his father’s tavern in Jeffersonville, Indiana. The company went public in 1993. Papa John's has more than 5,000 locations in 40 markets worldwide and has operated in the UK since 1999, the first opening in Grays, Essex. It now has more than 500 stores here.

In August 2023, Papa John’s added a further 27 sites to its recently launched company-owned estate in the UK, bringing its then total ownership to 118 restaurants here (plus 406 run by franchisees), making it the second-largest pizza brand in the UK. In January 2024, it was reported that Papa John’s is set to close “as many as 100 locations” after like-for-like sales declined by 21.8%. A spokesperson for the company said: “As our second largest global market, the UK is critical to Papa John’s long-term success. As we work to fully optimize our restaurant operations and improve profitability across the market, we will continue evaluating the growth potential of our restaurants. This includes working collaboratively with our franchisees to strategically close low-performing locations, when necessary, as well as continuing to invest in the right locations for the benefit of our customers.”

Soon after, the company announced it would be immediately closing eight stores “not meeting expectations” until new ownership is found. Following this, in March 2024, the company said it would be shutting 43 underperforming UK restaurants by mid-May following a consultation process. Chris Phylactou, managing director at Papa John’s UK, said: “While this is a difficult decision, closing these underperforming locations will give us the opportunity to invest back into the right locations with the right partners for long-term growth. We are focused on driving shared profitable growth across our UK restaurants, by continuing to make improvements to our business to ensure that we are well positioned for the future. We have been encouraged by the results so far from these initiatives.”

Papa John’s also said it will look at the development of new types of sites beyond traditional restaurants, such as expanding into holiday parks, and is set to “announce other large retail partners in the coming months”. In October 2024, Phylactou told Propel the business will return to profitability in 2025 and that its refranchised stores are performing up to 15% better. He said: “We will be loss making again this year, but we’ll be back in profit next year for the first time in three years. The losses have been because of investment rather than performance - we’re satisfied with the performance. The company’s new chief executive came over from the US recently and was very happy with what he saw.”

Phylactou said the 460-strong brand “grew disproportionately” in terms of sites during covid and that it will be a case of “steady growth” going forwards. “The most important thing next year is to be profitable and drive sales,” he said. “But there will restaurant growth too. There’s still a lot of white space and regions we want to go into, and the non-traditional estate is growing - we’ll be going into more sports stadiums, theme parks and travel locations.”

In 2024, Papa John’s took on 116 restaurants from two of its biggest franchisees which were in danger of insolvency. It refranchised 60, kept 13 as company-owned stores and has nearly completed the process of disposing of the remaining 43. “The ones we’re disposing of were in the wrong areas and too difficult to turn around, even with heavy investment,” Phylactou said. “We’ve refranchised 60 with good franchisees, and they’re now performing 12%-15% better. The company-owned stores are doing really well too, and we’re using them as testing grounds for new innovations such as ordering screens.

“We’re comfortable keeping them for now, although other franchisees would love to take them on. Ideally, our growth will come within franchising, but we’re ready and able if the opportunity comes along to take on further company stores. We had 114 franchisees five years ago and we currently have 65, but they all want to grow, and that’s our focus.”

In January 2025, Propel revealed that Papa John’s had paid close to £12m to acquire the franchise businesses of HB Pizza and the M25 division of Drake Food Service International in 2023.

The following month, the brand launched its new loyalty scheme, which it said would provide “more instant gratification” for guests than its previous one and would play a key part in the company returning to profitability. Making earning and redeeming points more streamlined, simplified and flexible, under the new system, customers earn points at a rate four times higher than before and don’t have to wait to use their rewards.

Robert Beattie, vice president of international technology at Papa John’s, told Propel. “People want more value for money loyalty programmes if they’re going to engage with them. There’s a broader industry shift towards more flexible and more transparent loyalty.”

In March 2025, Papa Johns launched a new marketing campaign. Simon Wallwork, the brand’s head of marketing, told Propel. “The Papa Johns brand has been a smaller player in the UK pizza market over the years, and we’ve got big ambitions to change that. It’s fair to say Papa Johns is a brand which has been rather under-loved by consumers for a number of years, and our consideration is lower than it needs to be. People are very much aware of Papa Johns - it’s just that they have either fallen away from the brand or been driven away by the competition through heavy advertising, and perhaps we’ve just fallen off the radar.”

He added: “We’ve done a lot of work on segmentation, so we really understand our audience now, know who to go after, and we’re going to target them a lot more effectively. It’s generally the younger end of the audience - it tends to be younger males, customers in more urban areas and younger families - both of which are familiar with Papa Johns. The awareness is quite high, some more users than others, and there’s massive headroom in both those markets to grow.”

In May 2025, Papa John’s closed 13 sites in the south west after ending its relationship with franchisee Renz Restaurants, which had gone bust. In August 2025, Papa John’s chief executive Todd Penegor has said the UK outperformed the rest of its total international business in July, and that company is driving strong growth here and will “turn on the development engine again” in due course.

In November 2025, Papa John’s UK reported its strongest trading quarter since covid, reflecting the “success of its recent brand relaunch”. Chris Phylactou, managing director, UK & Europe at Papa John’s, said: “This year, our focus has been on returning to profitability, and it is encouraging to see the changes we have introduced - relaunching our brand identity, optimising our media visibility, partnering with aggregators - have resonated with our customers and driven real momentum for the business. By reinforcing our commitment to quality ingredients, rewarding our loyal fans and delivering exceptional customer service, we have been able to realise these strong financial results, setting the foundation for continued growth and long-term success for Papa John’s in the UK.” The following month, the company agreed a deal to expand across Northern Ireland with Rana Group.

In March 2026, Qatari-backed investment fund Irth Capital has offered to pay $47 a share to buy Papa John’s International, in a second attempt after it tried to buy the pizza brand alongside ‌Apollo Global Management last year. That same month, Phylactou has told Propel the business returned to profitability in 2025 and that 2026 is “destined to be one of our best years on record” and that the business is very much in growth mode. He went on to say that it was a “proud moment” when Papa John’s US business said it would use the site closure strategy that helped strengthen the UK estate over there too.

Phylactou was promoted to senior vice-president international of Papa Johns in August 2026, and was replaced by Grant Reed, who was most recently the company’s senior director - operations and franchising UK & EMEA. Previous to that, he spent three and a half years as general manager at Demipower Group, the circa 120-strong KFC franchisee, and spent 17 months as head of Wendy’s in the Middle East, as well as 26 years at McDonald’s, including four and a half years as senior director - national UK operations.

Why franchise with Papa John’s

• ✓A flexible franchising model offers anything from traditional multi-store opportunities to non-traditional options like kiosks inside sports grounds or units in holiday parks, or at major events and family destinations. Franchisees will benefit from world-class training, operational systems, global branding and national marketing, as well as being part of an established network of franchisees. Papa John’s works closely with the franchising departments of high street banks including HSBC, NatWest, Lloyds and Hitachi Capital. Typically, these will lend for up to 60% of the total investment, including working capital.
• ✓Costs vary dependent on investment, location, store size and rent. But for a traditional multi-store format, typical costs are £500,000 minimum liquid availability, £170,000-£350,000 total investment (per store), £18,500 +VAT initial franchise fee, 5% of weekly net sales in management service fees and 4% of weekly net sales for national marketing fees. For non-traditional formats, the minimum liquidity availability is £50,000, and the total investment (per store) £80,000-£150,000, with the franchisee, management and marketing fees the same. Incentives are offered, and existing franchises can be bought on re-sale. The process is ordering a franchise pack, applying, discovery meeting, guest visit, business meeting, approval interview, approval, trade zone agreement, training and, finally, store opening.
• ✓New franchisees will undergo a six-week management training programme split between a Papa John’s store and its quality control centre in Milton Keynes, or online. The whole process typically takes six to nine months. Support will be provided before, during and after opening, with additional support available on request. No previous experience is necessary. The initial agreement is normally for 10 years and, subject to lease and other considerations, the is currently renewable by the franchisee at no additional charge. There are franchise opportunities available across many regions of the UK, especially in Scotland, and international franchises are also available on enquiry.