Quarter one figures from Papa John's UK
Tuesday 7th April
Papa John’s, the world’s third largest pizza company, has reported a very positive start to 2009 for the 13 weeks to the end of March, with continued strong growth across its core Delivery Carryout business in the UK & Ireland.
Highlights:- Like-for-like sales were up 8.5 per cent in quarter 1 2009 (5.4% Q1 2008), giving cumulative 2 year comparative sales growth of over 13.9 per cent.
- System sales rose by 12.2 per cent in Q1.
- 10 new stores have been opened taking the total number of Papa John’s to 128 in the UK and Ireland.
- On-line sales increased in 2009 Q1 by 55.5 per cent on 2008 Q1 figures, with 25.7% of all orders coming through this channel. In a peak week over 29 per cent of sales were ordered through on-line.
2009 targets:- Strong pipeline of franchisees and sites means that the company is on course for around a 100 per cent increase on 2008 new store openings, with between 30 and 40 openings expected for the full year – creating up to 1200 jobs.
- Continued investment in on-line capability and increasing communication with consumers are expected to drive on-line sales to over 30 per cent of total sales.
- Overall system sales are expected to increase by a further 30 per cent against full year 2008.
Managing Director’s comment:UK MD Ian Saunders
Our results continue to show that we are in a strong position to meet Papa John’s International’s ambitious growth plans for the UK in 2009. We have had an exceptional start to the year which has improved further at the beginning of April and it appears that our tremendous pizza quality and very strong value position is helping us to take advantage of a change in eating habits during these challenging times.
We know that it is more important than ever to provide real value for money to consumers who are looking to spend as smartly as possible, and part of that value is Papa John’s refusal to compromise on our ‘Better Ingredients. Better Pizza’ proposition.
We are continuing to see a shift in consumer ordering habits to online, with a 55.5% increase in sales though this channel in the first quarter, compared to the same period last year. We have already seen online orders go over 29% and are confident that we will achieve our full year target of an average 30% taken through our very easy to use on-line ordering website. We will continue to invest in this area to ensure we will lead the industry once again in 2009.
We have already opened ten new stores in the first quarter of the year and we are confident that we will achieve our target of 30-40 new stores in 2009. We expect to be able to continue this momentum and our five year goal is to have at least 300 stores open in the UK & Ireland by the end of 2013. Each new store brings around 20-30 full and part time jobs to their local community, so we hope to create 3000 new jobs in the next four years.
Our franchisees are very excited about the progress which Papa John’s is making in the UK & Ireland and have begun a programme of investment in their stores to ensure that our restaurants reflect the ‘Better Ingredients. Better Pizza’ position and our commitment to “100% Fresh, Never Frozen Dough”. All of the London stores will have been re-imaged by the end of April.
We were very pleased to receive the recognition of the Pizza, Pasta and Italian Food Association who announced Papa John’s as the National Pizza Delivery Chain of the Year for 2008, the third time we have received this accolade in the last 4 years.
The judges were impressed by our unfaltering commitment to invest in further improving our pizza quality to remain a step ahead of the category, despite the well publicised pressures on all businesses through rising costs. This was best demonstrated by the launch of our new Authentic Thin Crust pizza, a 100% Fresh, Never Frozen thin crust base which made Papa John’s the first major pizza delivery chain to guarantee the use of only 100 per cent fresh dough for all pizzas on the menu, which is a perfect example of how Papa John’s is leading the industry.