Papa John's Opens Its First Restaurant in the Dominican Republic
With 600th International Restaurant, Papa John's Brings "Better Ingredients. Better Pizza" and Jobs to Santo Domingo
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 18, 2009--
Papa John’s International (NASDAQ: PZZA) today held the grand opening of
its first restaurant in the Dominican Republic, bringing with it more
than 85 jobs and superior-quality pizza to Santo Domingo’s 1.9 million
residents.
The 257-seat Papa John’s restaurant, owned by the Inversiones Blumaro
S.A. Group, led by Isabel Turrull and Manuel Corripio, features dine-in,
takeout, and delivery, in a location co-branded with Burger King®.
Inversiones Blumaro plans to open 18 Papa John’s restaurants over the
next nine years in the Dominican Republic, including three additional
restaurants this year, bringing hundreds of jobs to the region.
“While the fragile global economy has changed the way people are
spending their hard-earned money, one thing that hasn’t changed is
consumer demand for a better quality pizza,” said Jim Thornton, Papa
John’s vice president, international operations. “We’re excited to not
only meet that demand, but to do so by employing the talent and hard
work of the Dominican people.”
The opening of the Papa John’s in Santo Domingo represents the company’s
600th restaurant open outside of the United States. Papa
John’s celebrated its 10-year anniversary of international operations
and its 500th international restaurant opening in July 2008.
“We spent the first 10 years methodically growing and developing our
international operations,” said David Flanery, Papa John’s chief
financial officer and head of the company’s international division. “It
has just been in the past couple of years where we have significantly
ramped-up our development efforts, and with 600 restaurants we feel we
have a strong global footprint to continue to bring a better pizza
experience to more and more consumers around the world.”
Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, Papa John's International, Inc.
(NASDAQ: PZZA) is the world's third largest pizza company. For nine
years running, consumers have rated Papa John's No. 1 in customer
satisfaction among all national pizza chains in the highly regarded
American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). Papa John's also ranks
first among pizza companies in the 2008 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty
Engagement Index, was honored by Restaurants & Institutions Magazine
(R&I) with the 2008 Silver Award for Consumers’ Choice in Chains in the
pizza segment, and was named 2007 Pizza Today Chain of the Year. For
more information about the company or to order pizza online, visit Papa
John's at www.papajohns.com.
Source: Papa John's International, Inc.
Papa John’s International, Inc.
Darryl Carr, 502-261-4318
Director,
Corporate Communications
Darryl_Carr@papajohns.com
