Rob Lynch has a tough time hiding his excitement—and expectations—for the company’s latest innovation under his watch, an “Epic Stuffed Crust” pizza.
It’s “what we believe to be one of the biggest initiatives if not the biggest initiative in the brand’s history,” Lynch said in an upcoming episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive.”
The Louisville, Ky.-based pizza chain introduced the stuffed-crust pizza this week in something of a soft open—it is available only to members of the company’s Papa Rewards loyalty program, a reward to its membership, Lynch says. But he believes it will be a key ingredient in the chain’s ability to maintain momentum after the pandemic is over and all of those excess delivery customers leave their homes.
Specifically, he said, the pizza can help Papa John’s win over big pizza fans. “The people that order stuffed crust in the pizza industry are the biggest pizza fans in the world,” Lynch said. “All the research we’ve done would tell you the heaviest customers of pizza, the biggest customers of pizza, loved stuffed crust.
“This is an opportunity for us to go out and for the first time compete for that customer’s occasion. They have higher frequency than other pizza customers. These are very valuable customers that love stuffed crust.”
Papa John’s is completing what has probably been the best year in its history, buoyed by a pandemic that kept people home eating pizza. Same-store sales rose almost 24% in the third quarter, for instance. The results put the company’s turnaround from a two-year slump on hyperdrive.
Under Lynch, who took over as CEO last year, Papa John’s has been far more aggressive in pushing out new products at a company that historically avoided them. It introduced a new Garlic Parmesan crust last year, the first such change in the chain’s crust.
Just before the pandemic it introduced a line of sandwiches called Papadias that Lynch called “a grand slam.” And then it brought back a cheeseburger pizza with pickles.
The stuffed crust, Lynch said, stands to be the biggest development of the bunch and, though he would not provide any details, he suggested it could be a platform for future development.
The item also puts the chain in a head-to-head battle with another pizza giant, Pizza Hut, which has largely owned the stuffed crust market for years.
Papa John’s says its version is made with fresh dough. The dough is hand-stuffed with extra cheese using a special tool to ensure that the cheese remains in the crust and doesn’t leak out—a problem that the company worked hard to solve.
“It’s a huge departure from normal operating procedures,” Lynch said. “It took a long time working with operators and franchisees to find a way to be able to execute that without significantly impacting our time of operations and our time to deliver.”
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.