Gareth Davies, the vice president of Papa John’s UK has told M&C Report the company would consider a joint venture with a pub company.
Davies told M&C Report that Papa John’s would open its 300th UK store in late spring/early summer of this year – taking it to the halfway point of its 600-store growth target.
Asked whether the company would consider operating out of pubs, Davies said: “It’s certainly something we have talked about. We ran a pilot with Heineken a while ago. We are always open to opportunities to look at ways of giving customers access to our products, whatever environment they were in. We’ve certainly got a few sites where we have taken over old pubs and we run pizza delivery operations.
“It’s definitely an area we would give consideration to.”
The company finished 2014 on 282 stores and Davies said he was pleased that its foothold had been established nationally.
He said: “Historically our area of strength was London and the south east. We have had great success in the last few years in growing outside of that area. Throughout 2013 and 2014 we have opened a lot of stores in the North West and the Midlands. We continue to look for opportunities to expand and the key opportunities for our franchise owners in London is to look at infill and looking to rationalise the size of the areas they service.”
He said there was no a concreate timetable to reach 600 sites but that the company expected to open 40 to 50 stores a year.
Papa John’s currently operates an entirely franchised estate in the UK and Davies said there were currently no plans to open a managed site with the focus on franchise owners who were willing to operate multiple outlets.
He also said the company was committed to its delivery and carry out model although it operates some “non-traditional” sites including a restaurant in Bognor Regis, West Sussex and dine-in sites at Haven holiday parks.
On the company’s burgeoning relationship with motorway service station operator, Welcome Break, Davies said: “It’s going really well. Food-on-the-go is a very different environment from our traditional menu so we have got some different offers and we are looking to develop that menu. As we move into the more food court operations and as they develop those we can expand the menu and give the consumers more choice. Maybe there will be more of a sharing element to the menu.”
The company launched a new website in November and is due to release a new app next month, which will include exclusive offers for users and will link in with the company’s loyalty scheme. He said it would also represent a “reasonably big change” which the company will announce at the end of February.
