Papa John's chain trying again

By Mike Deibert

After failing with an earlier attempt to gain a foothold in the Ontario and Saskatchewan markets, Papa John's International, Inc. is trying again, as part of a planned Canada-wide expansion.

The Kentucky-based franchisor, which calls itself the third largest pizza company in the world, announced last month that it had signed development agreements to open 57 restaurants by 2016 across Canada.

Currently it has 18 Canadian units, mainly in Alberta with a few in British Columbia.
Each of the four franchise groups involved in the planned expansion has agreed to open at least one unit this year.

PDR Associates has committed to building 12 units in Eastern Ontario. This company is based in Calgary and has the Alberta restaurants. It was called Perfect Delivery Canada when it started operating in the West in 2000, with its parent company being Perfect Delivery of Greenville, South Carolina.

Bajco LLC,  a U.S.-based company with offices in Niles, OH and Lahore Pakistan, has signed on to open 15 units in western Ontario. Bajco has 29 Papa John's restaurants in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

PJ Atlantic Franchising Ltd., based in Moncton, has a group franchise for the Atlantic provinces where it is to build 20 restaurants.

MJ Taylor holding company of Saskatchewan has signed a deal to open 10 restaurants in its province.

"Canada is a key focus area for our international expansion, and these multi-unit franchise operators will help us further establish a strong foothold in that country," David Flanery, Papa John's chief financial officer and managing director, international, said in a release.

"There's a growing demand for better quality pizza in Canada, and we, along with our franchisees, are eager to continue meeting that demand by delivering our award-winning pizza," he added.

When Papa John's entered Canada in 2000, a company executive told ORN that the chain's competitive advantage comes from making the best pizzas wherever it operates because it uses superior ingredients. Its sauce is made from tomatoes grown specifically for Papa John's.

However, the company was not as well received in Canada as it expected.
Perfect Delivery was committed to open 40 stores over five years in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Another company with Papa John's restaurants in the U.S. was supposed to establish restaurants in Ontario and Quebec. It opened two units in Windsor and one in Tecumseh, all of which later closed.

Papa John's is more optimistic about its chances this time because it feels it is working with better people, said spokesman Darryl Carr. "We feel very good about the franchise groups that we've partnered with."

However he said he was unable to say at presstime who the people are behind PJ Atlantic and MJ Taylor.

Also, Papa John's is going to institute online ordering in the near future in Canada. Onosys, based in Cleveland, OH, is developing the website papajohnspizza.ca

There are 3,200 Papa John's restaurants, 4509 of them outside the U.S. in 28 countries.