Papa John's
| File:PapaJohns.svg | |
| Company type | Public (Nasdaq: PZZA) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Food Wholesale |
| Founded | August 9, 1985 |
| Headquarters | Louisville, Kentucky |
Key people | John Schnatter, Founder |
| Products | Pizza |
| Website | www.papajohns.com |
Papa John's Pizza (Nasdaq: PZZA) is the third largest take-out and delivery pizza restaurant chain in the United States, behind Pizza Hut and Domino's Pizza. It is based in Louisville, Kentucky. Papa John's slogan is "Better Ingredients. Better Pizza."
There are more than 3,300 Papa John's stores worldwide, including over 2,600 in the U.S. and more than 500 in over 30 other countries.[1][2]
History
The founder of Papa John's, John Schnatter, began his pizza career at Rocky's Sub Pub in Jeffersonville, Indiana while attending Jeffersonville High School. John graduated from Jeffersonville High in 1980, and continued his association with the pizza business while attending Ball State University, working as a delivery driver for Greek's Pizzeria in Muncie. Upon graduating, he began working for his father, who was co-owner of the bar Mick's Lounge in Jeffersonville. In 1984, he sold his car to buy out the other owner of the bar, and started serving pizza to customers. Business started picking up, and later that year Mick's Lounge was converted entirely into the first Papa John's restaurant.
The corporation credits its growth to great customer service, quality products, and menu simplicity, in contrast with other chains' focus on low prices. Fewer options in crust styles and side dishes simplify inventory management and are meant to allow greater focus on what options there are. However, since the mid-1990s, Papa John's has followed the industry trend and greatly expanded its menu options, adding thin-crust, pan pizza, and whole wheat crust options (available in one size only); "Robusto", barbecue, Alfredo, and garlic ranch sauces; a dozen new specialty pizzas, many with new toppings and new cheeses; chicken strips and two flavors of chicken wings; many dessert pastries; and new variations of bread sticks and cheese sticks. Along with these have come two new spice shaker toppings for the new specialty pizzas and five new sauce cup flavors for the chicken products.
The thin crust has been advertised as crispier than others (similar to St. Louis-style pizza) and the "Robusto" sauce introduced with the pan crust has chunky tomato pieces and more vibrant spice notes. To simplify in-store operations and to provide product consistency between stores, many functions such as dough production are carried out by an off-site commissary system similar to that of most other fast food chains.
Lawsuit
In 1997, Pizza Hut sued Papa John's over its "Better Ingredients. Better Pizza." slogan, based on a series of advertisements that compared the ingredients of Papa John's and its competitors. At trial, the court agreed with Pizza Hut's argument that Papa John's slogan did not constitute statements of literal fact – that "fresher ingredients" do not necessarily account for a "better" pizza. This ruling was overturned in 1999 when Papa John's appealed the decision.
Business ventures
Papa John's primarily takes carryout and delivery orders, although some stores have tables and chairs. Papa John's offers online ordering throughout the United States, automatically assigning all registered customers to the closest location.
The structure of a Papa John's restaurant is typical of that seen in many fast food outlets, with a salaried store manager presiding over day-to-day operations, and several salaried or hourly assistant managers and shift managers presiding over in-store and delivery team members. Above the store management is an area supervisor who is generally supervised by a franchisee or; in corporate stores, a director of operations reports to an operational vice president.
Franchise stores owners pay a 5% of sales to Papa John's International, a portion of which is used for advertising and support. Corporate operations looks over franchisees to ensure brand consistency.
As of January 2008[update], there were over 3,330 Papa John's restaurants operating in all 50 U.S. states and 30 international markets. Papa John's International is a publicly traded company, with 30% of shares owned by John Schnatter.
Papa John's became one of the first major pizza chains to include a dipping sauce with every original crust or square pan pizza, as well as a pepperoncini pepper, a traditional Italian garnish.
In January 2002, Papa John's became the first national pizza chain to make online ordering available to all of its U.S. customers.[3] Most other national chains subsequently added online ordering to their services. Online ordering is also available in Canada, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.
On March 30, 2006, Six Flags announced that it will sell only pizza from Papa John's at its parks. In turn, Six Flags will receive 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. On November 16, 2006, the company signed on 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.
Papa John's is credited with developing the most advanced dynamic resource control infrastructure in the fast food industry. Sources within the company have stated the centralized network is modeled after NORAD's Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center. As of January 2007[update], all Papa John's retail locations were linked via OC-768 fiber optic cables to national headquarters.[4] Real-time updates are made at the company's Louisville national inventory control center, where operations research experts (many recruited from the 2002 layoffs at Enron) allocate deliverymen and pizza ingredients to areas experiencing surges in pizza demand.[5]
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 blogosphere[6] to Cleveland television. Increasing awareness of the controversy prompted an apology from the Papa John's national headquarters on May 5.[7] 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.[8]
Other trade names
- Papa John's operated under the company name "Papiano's" in the East Lansing, Michigan area, home to Michigan State University. A pre-existing local chain of pizza restaurants in this area already laid claim to the name "Papa John's" before the major chain was formed.[9] The "Papiano's" franchise closed in 2008.[citation needed]
See also
- Papa John's Cardinal Stadium, a football stadium on the campus of the University of Louisville bearing the company's name via a naming rights agreement
- PapaJohns.com Bowl, an American college football bowl game played at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama every December.
References
- ^ "The Papa John's Story". Retrieved 2006-08-07.
- ^ "?".
- ^ "USA: Papa John's first pizza chain to offer nationwide online ordering". Retrieved 2007-02-18.
- ^ "Technical Analysis of Papa John's Inventory Control" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-01-10.
- ^ "The Fall of Enron and Effects on other American Corporations". Retrieved 2007-01-10.
- ^ [1], So Good, May 3, 2008.
- ^ Eick, Jon. How Papa John's averted a WOM disaster, iMedia Connection, May 28, 2008.
- ^ Papa John's Serves up 23 Cent Pizzas
- ^ Welcome To Papa John's Pizza
