Papa John's

Marketing

The pizza business, looking for customers, takes on burger chains

Papa Johns is bringing back its Cheesy Burger Pizza, after Pizza Hut created its Cheeseburger Melt, as major fast-food chains face challenges with their value reputation.

Financing

Increased marketing spending did not help Papa Johns' sales in April

A softer consumer environment is more than offsetting the pizza chain’s boost in marketing in recent weeks. But profitability improved last quarter.

The Bottom Line: The pizza chain worked to convince franchisees to buy into a massive marketing shift. And then the brand’s CEO left.

The Bajco Group will open 50 restaurants in the Midwest, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Florida, as the pizza chain works to increase domestic development.

The pizza delivery chain is building on its “Better Ingredients, Better Pizza” with a new marketing slogan, “Better Get You Some," along with a campaign featuring Big Boi.

The Bottom Line: Growth that came so easy to pizza delivery chains like Domino’s, Pizza Hut and Papa Johns is now much harder to come by. And now two of them are looking for new leadership.

The fast-casual burger chain is plucking the Papa Johns chief executive to take over for Randy Garutti in May. Ravi Thanawala will become the pizza chain’s interim CEO.

The company is shifting spending from local marketing to national marketing and has plans for “major food innovation” come April.

The Bottom Line: The pizza delivery chain’s business with companies like Uber Eats and DoorDash is thriving while its own delivery is slowing. But this isn’t the beginning of the end of self-delivery, CEO Rob Lynch says.

The former NBA player turned pitchman will not run for re-election on the board due to business commitments. But he will maintain a relationship with the pizza chain.

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