Papa John's Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids
Papa John's International, Inc.

Headquarters in Cumberland, Georgia
Trade name	Papa Johns
Type	Public
Traded as	NASDAQ: PZZA S&P 600 Component
Industry	Restaurant
Founded	October 2, 1984; 40 years ago (1984-10-02)
Founder	John Schnatter
Headquarters	Jeffersontown, Kentucky, U.S. Cumberland, Georgia, U.S.
Number of locations	5,400 (December 2020)
Key people	Robert M. Lynch (President & CEO) Max Wetzel (CMO) Jim Norberg (COO)
Products	Pizza, chicken wings, dessert
Revenue	US$1.81 billion (FY December 29, 2020)
Operating income	US$90.253 million (FY December 29, 2020)
Net income	US$57.932 million (FY December 29, 2020)
Total assets	US$872.770 million (FY December 29, 2020)
Total equity	−US$266.939 million (FY December 29, 2020)
Number of employees	~16,700 (FY December 29, 2020)

Papa Johns is a well-known American pizza restaurant chain. It is one of the largest pizza delivery companies in the United States. Its main offices are located in the Louisville, Kentucky and Atlanta, Georgia areas.

Papa Johns has grown a lot and now has over 5,500 locations. You can find their restaurants in 49 different countries and regions around the world. This makes them the third-largest pizza delivery company globally.

In January 2002, Papa Johns was the first big pizza chain in the U.S. to let all its customers order online. After this, many other national pizza chains also started offering online ordering services.

The Story of Papa Johns
- Early Success and Growth
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The Story of Papa Johns

The first Papa Johns restaurant was started in 1984. A man named John Schnatter, who people called "Papa" John, set up a pizza oven. He put this oven in a small broom closet at the back of his father's bar, Mick's Lounge, in Jeffersonville, Indiana.

To buy the used pizza equipment, John sold his 1971 Camaro Z28 car. He spent about $1,600 on the equipment. He then started selling pizzas to the bar's customers from his small converted closet.

Early Success and Growth

John's pizzas quickly became very popular. Because of this success, he moved into a bigger space right next door just one year later. Around the same time, Papa Johns Pizza also invented dipping sauce specifically for pizza crusts. This idea became very popular and is now a common way to enjoy pizza, especially the crust.

The company continued to grow quickly. In 1993, Papa Johns became a public company. This means people could buy shares of the company. Just one year later, in 1994, they had already opened 500 stores. By 1997, they had grown even more, reaching 1,500 stores. In 2009, John Schnatter even bought his old Camaro back! He had offered a reward of $250,000 to find the car.