With 600th International Restaurant, Papa John's Brings "Better Ingredients. Better Pizza" and Jobs to Santo Domingo
Louisville, Ky.--(// BUSINESS WIRE //)-- 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.
Source: Papa John's International, Inc.
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