Papa John'S International

Papa John's International, Inc., d/b/a Papa Johns, is an American pizza restaurant chain. It is the fourth largest pizza delivery restaurant chain in the United States, with headquarters in Cumberland, Georgia within the Atlanta metropolitan area.

The Papa John's restaurant was founded in 1984 when "Papa" John Schnatter knocked out a broom closet in the back of his father's tavern, Mick's Lounge, in Jeffersonville, Indiana. He then sold his 1971 Camaro Z28 to purchase US$1,600 worth of used pizza equipment and began selling pizzas to the tavern's customers out of the converted closet. His pizzas proved sufficiently popular that a year later he moved into an adjoining space. Dipping sauce specifically for pizza was invented by Papa John's Pizza that same year, and has since become popular when eating pizza, especially the crust. The company went public in 1993. A year later it had 500 stores, and by 1997 it had opened 1,500 stores. In 2009, Schnatter bought the Camaro back after offering a reward of $250,000 for the car.

Papa John's primarily takes carryout and delivery orders, although some restaurants have tables and chairs for dining in.

Franchise owners pay a one-off franchise fee of US$25,000 per restaurant, then a royalty fee of 5% of net sales, plus a charge for advertising of 8% of net sales. The company requires franchisees to have net worth of at least $250,000, the approximate amount of investment needed. Corporate operations look over franchisees to ensure brand consistency. Papa John's International is a publicly traded company.

Based on 2019 sales information provided by Technomic, PMQ Pizza Magazine reported that the company was the fourth-largest take-out and pizza delivery restaurant chain in the United States. (According to PMQ, Little Caesars is the third-largest pizza chain.) The company's net profitability though, is far behind its main competitors. In 2014, its net margin was 4.6% of total sales, whereas Domino's Pizza's net margin was 8.2% and Yum! Brands, which owns Pizza Hut, was 7.9%. Company headquarters are in Jeffersontown, Kentucky, a community within the merged government of Louisville. Its slogan is "Better Ingredients. Better Pizza. Papa John's."

Papa John's has over 5,199 establishments—4,456 franchised restaurants operating domestically in all 50 states, and in 44 countries and territories. Papa John's operates 246 "company owned stores" under joint ventures and 35 units in Beijing and North China. In September 2012 the 4,000th Papa John's Pizza restaurant opened, in New Hyde Park, New York. The company celebrated the event by giving away 4,000 free pizzas to customers throughout New York City.

In January 2002, Papa John's became the first national pizza chain to make online ordering available to all of its U.S. customers. Most other national chains later added online ordering to their services. On July 10, 2004, Papa John's controlled an estimated 6.6% of the market, according to Technomic.

In February 2017, it was reported by the Associated Press that the company was testing a "Papa Priority" $2.99 fee that lets people jump to the head of the line for their pizza order.

Papa John's has operated in the United Kingdom since 1999. In July 2015, the company had 300 shops in the UK, although in 2010 it had plans for the number rising to between 400 and 500 within the next five years.

Papa John's operates throughout Ireland, with its head office at Ballybrit, County Galway. The company has over 50 locations and operates mobile units around the country. The franchises are often located adjacent to Supermacs fast food outlets, whose parent company owns the exclusive franchise rights for the chain in Ireland.

Spain is the second most important European market for Papa John's. The chain has been operating in Spain since 2016, and had 42 restaurants by late 2017. In particular, the restaurants achieved a significant presence in the Madrid province with more than half of the Spanish restaurants being located there. Papa John's expects to open at least 100 restaurants just in the province of Madrid, as well as expanding to other regions across Spain.

Papa John's also operates in Russia and Belarus with plans to expand to several other European and Central Asian countries.

Papa John's restaurants in Portugal have closed or no longer operate under the brand name. Some of these locations still serve pizza, though the master-franchise Rest-Smart filed for bankruptcy.

In Poland, Papa John's opened their first location in 2017.

In 2018, Papa John's opened their first restaurant in Kazakhstan, which became the 46th country in the world where the chain is represented.

In May 2019, it was announced that Papa John's would enter the German market by taking over Halle/Salle-based Uno Pizza and converting their stores into Papa John's, with the aim of opening up to 250 locations in Germany in the following five to seven years.

In the Netherlands Papa John's opened its doors in 2019, starting in Amsterdam and expending further through the Netherlands in 2019.

Papa John's operates in 13 Latin American countries, including Colombia, Chile, and Mexico.

Papa John's entered the Indian market in 2006 with its first store opening in Noida, Uttar Pradesh with an aim to open up 100 stores in India. They couldn't keep up the efficient sophisticated ordering technology and fast delivery methods of their rivals Domino's Pizza and Pizza Hut in India. When Papa John's started in 2006, Domino's Pizza already had 126 branches. By 2017, Papa John's decided to exit the country completely, having opened only 66 stores and being unable to compete with Domino's Pizza and Pizza Hut, which had entered in the mid-1990s.

In 2018, Papa John's sold ownership of its 34 corporate-owned locations in Beijing, shutting down their operations in China.

Papa John's opened its first store in Lahore, Pakistan in early 2019.

On March 30, 2006, Six Flags announced that its parks' pizza would exclusively be from Papa John's. In turn, Six Flags received an annual sponsorship and promotional opportunities from Papa John's. Papa John's is also the official pizza supplier of the Olympic Speedskating Oval in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

In November 2006, Papa John's signed with ESPN Regional Television to become the title sponsor of the annual PapaJohns.com Bowl, a college post-season football bowl game in Birmingham, Alabama, which Papa John's continued to sponsor through 2010.

In 2010, Papa John's signed an agreement to be the Official Pizza Sponsor of the National Football League and Super Bowls XLV, XLVI and XLVII. In 2011, Papa John's became the official Pizza Sponsor of the NFL in Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom. In October 2012, Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning became a franchisee in the Denver area for Papa John's, and also purchased 21 franchises in the area. In July 2013, Papa John's announced it had become the Official Pizza Partner of The Football League in the UK. The sponsorship ended after the 2017 season when Pizza Hut became the official pizza of the NFL in February 2018.

The company was the former beneficiary of the naming rights to Papa John's Cardinal Stadium used by the University of Louisville's football team, in exchange for Schnatter personally donating $5 million for the rights. Schnatter made a further $10 million donation for the stadium's expansion, and extended the naming rights to the year 2040. The Papa John's name was taken off the stadium in July 2018, after Schnatter's resignation from the company.

In 2020, Papa John's became the main sponsor of the EFL Trophy, a football competition for lower league and under-23 clubs in England.

Papa John's received attention in May 2008 when a Washington, D.C. franchise distributed T-shirts making fun of Cleveland Cavaliers star player LeBron James at a playoff game against the Washington Wizards. Photographs of the shirts quickly spread from the Internet to Cleveland television. Increasing awareness of the controversy prompted an apology from the Papa John's national headquarters on May 5. To apologize, Papa John's offered large single-topping pizzas for 23 cents (matching James' jersey number) at all locations in Greater Cleveland and throughout northern Ohio. The chain sold over 172,000 pizzas at 23 cents a piece, with customers waiting in lines outside of some stores for as long as three hours.[80]

Papa John's also received media attention on January 6, 2012, when an employee typed the phrase "lady chinky eyes" on a receipt issued to an Asian American customer at a restaurant in New York City. The employee was fired and the company issued a formal apology. A manager at the restaurant where the incident occurred told the New York Post that the cashier, a teenager, did not intend to offend saying, "It's a busy place, and it was a way to identify her and her order. You know, we do stuff like that sometimes. We'll write 'the lady with the blue eyes' or 'the guy in the green shirt.' I think the lady put it out there just to get some attention, some people like that type of attention."

John Schnatter's claim that a reverse in NFL viewer ratings (supposedly because of the NFL kneeling controversy) had directly led to decreased same-store sales across Papa John's franchises was extensively reported in November 2017. It was estimated that Schnatter's personal holdings in the chain had lost millions of dollars in value. Papa John's disavowed statements by white supremacist groups expressing support for the brand in the wake of Schnatter's comments.

A media report surfaced on July 11, 2018, claiming that Schnatter had used a racial epithet in a conference call the previous May, along with graphic descriptions of violence against racial minorities. Forbes magazine reported that a media agency working with Papa John's severed its relationship with the company following the report. Steve Ritchie, who had replaced Schnatter as CEO, responded with a memo stating that "racism has no place at Papa John's," and a company spokesman wrote in an email that Papa John's "condemns racism". The same day, Schnatter admitted to using the racial epithet during the conference call and resigned as chairman of the company's board of directors. On July 13, 2018, top executives of the company decided to remove Schnatter's image from marketing materials.