Published: October 18, 2010
Papa John's Founder Celebrates Relaunch of papajohns.com Website with His First-Ever Online Order
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - (BUSINESS WIRE) - The recipe is his. He developed the "Better Ingredients, Better Pizza"
promise, too. John Schnatter, the Founder of Papa John's, has done a lot
to turn the pizza company he started inside the broom closet of his
dad's tavern 26 years ago into the world's third-largest pizza chain.
John Schnatter, founder of Papa John's, gets a hand from his 12 year-old son, Beau, in placing his first-ever online order to help mark the rollout of the company's revamped website. Papa John's was the first pizza company to introduce online ordering in 2001 at www.papajohns.com and the brand has since transacted more than $2 billion in online sales. Schnatter started the business in the broom closet of his father's tavern 26 years ago and the company has grown to be the world's third largest pizza chain. Until last week, he had never ordered a pizza online. Schnatter's order, made from his home in Louisville, Ky., can be watched on www.facebook/papajohns.com. (Photo: Business Wire)
One thing he's never done, though, is order a pizza online. Until now.
Recognizing the impact online ordering has had on the company's growth
the last decade - Papa John's was the first pizza company to introduce
online ordering in 2001 at www.papajohns.com
and the brand has since transacted more than $2 billion in online sales
- Schnatter marked the rollout of the company's revamped website this
week by placing his first order from his home in Louisville, Ky. - with
a big assist from his 12-year-old son, Beau. Watch the video at Papa
John's Facebook page.
"When I started Papa John's 26 years ago, I never dreamed customers
would one day be ordering pizza by computer," Schnatter said. "Now it
looks like online and mobile web ordering will surpass phone ordering,
and likely in the not too distant future. With the launch of this new
site, I decided that it was time to try it for myself, but I made sure I
had an Internet expert on-hand: my son Beau. It was easy."
To celebrate the launch of the new website and "Papa" John Schnatter's
first online order, between now and October 24 customers will receive a
FREE order of cheesesticks with any online purchase of a large specialty
pizza at regular menu price at papajohns.com. Since Papa John's became
the first pizza chain to offer online ordering in 2001, the brand has
garnered the highest online sales average per restaurant in the country.
Features of the newly launched papajohns.com website include:
-
Pizza Builder Graphics - Allows customers to put together their
own pizzas through an interactive pizza-making application, showing
them a visual of their finished product that matches in-restaurant
topping specifications.
-
Papa Points Online Loyalty Program - With the launch of the
only online pizza loyalty program, customers can earn points towards
free pizza with each online purchase. Once enrolled, customers earn
one point for every $5 spent online; when customers accumulate 25
points, they receive a free pizza with their next online pizza
purchase.
-
Quick Click Ordering - For the quickest online experience,
customers have the option to select their pizza directly from a list
of the most frequently ordered items.
-
Future Orders â Allows customers to order their pizza up
to 28 days in advance.
According to NPD Group/CREST year-to-date through August 2010,
the percentage of Papa John's traffic originating from Internet orders
outpaces all other major pizza chains.
In addition, had pizza chains been included in Internet Retailer magazine's
recent ranking of the top online sellers in 2009, Papa John's online
transaction levels would have merited a Top 5 spot next to brands like
Apple, Wal-Mart and Amazon.com.
"Papa John's customers already love ordering their pizzas online," said
Jim Ensign, vice president of digital marketing at Papa John's. "Our new
site will make online ordering even easier, will reward them for
ordering online like no other pizza company with our Papa Points loyalty
program and with the Pizza Builder feature, will give them creative ways
to interact with our pizza like never before."
Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, Papa John's International, Inc.
(NASDAQ: PZZA) is the world's third largest pizza company. For 10 of the
past 11 years, consumers have rated Papa John's No. 1 in customer
satisfaction among all national pizza chains in the American Customer
Satisfaction Index (ACSI). Papa John's also was honored by Restaurants &
Institutions Magazine (R&I) with the 2009 Gold Award for Consumers'
Choice in Chains in the pizza segment. Papa John's is the Official Pizza
Sponsor of the National Football League and Super Bowl XLV, XLVI and
XLVII. For more information about the company or to order pizza online,
visit Papa John's at www.papajohns.com.
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6470861&lang=en

Papa John's International, Inc.
Tish Muldoon, Senior Director,
Corporate Communications
502-261-4987
tish_muldoon@papajohns.com
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