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Can Papa Johns Pizza stay competitive in the UK food industry? | Boardroom Uncovered
May 14, 2025
The UK boss of pizza chain Papa Johns has branded the rising costs his business is facing as a result of a "perfect storm of difficulty".
Speaking on this episode of City AM‘s Boardroom Uncovered podcast, managing director Chris Phylactou also called on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to "start giving some relief to businesses" as companies are having a "hard time".
He pointed to the increase in employers' contributions to National Insurance as one of the major impacts on his business since Labour came to power last summer.
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Produced by: Jon Robinson, Emmanuel Nwosu, Joseph Curay Teneda
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0:00
[Music]
0:00
can you see no you never know what
0:02
you're doing you sure yes no cheating no
0:04
peeking no cheating no no let's do it
0:08
i'm worried about hitting the mic can
0:10
you give me a little water make sure my
0:12
mouth's not sweet you want to cleanse
0:15
your palette
0:18
oh he's done this before i had a mint
0:20
earlier all I can taste is mint there's
0:22
my excuses getting excuses in that's an
0:24
error i can't see i've got my eyes
0:25
closed as well
0:27
i'm not I'm not attacking the integrity
0:29
of the competition no exactly okay i
0:31
think it's important hello and welcome
0:33
to another edition of City A's Pokemon
0:35
covered we're keeping all of this
0:37
in episode i think I'm looking at the
0:40
camera show i know you're loving this
0:43
the thing is they're just going to leave
0:44
this is our most
0:46
They're just going to leave the room
0:48
well we've not told you Chris we're
0:49
doing the whole interview like this
0:57
okay cool and we're bringing the pizzas
0:59
now so what's the format is it two
1:01
slices in the plate yeah two slices in
1:04
each plate there you go john if you can
1:06
put your hand up put your hand up pull
1:08
your plate yeah yep and Chris there you
1:11
go let me just move your hand yep that's
1:13
your plate right okay so we're going to
1:15
try one slice and then we'll throw the
1:17
judgment yes okay you ready Chris
1:21
okay let's do it when he's touching it
1:23
trust me for like few minutes no I'm
1:26
touching it to try and hold it
1:31
[Music]
1:34
i'll keep one one side um I think my
1:37
What do you think Chris what have you
1:39
got pepperoni is it
1:43
i've only tasted one so far shall I
1:45
taste yeah which one do you think you've
1:48
You taste the other one yeah no I
1:49
haven't tasted the the other one yeah
1:51
taste the other one then have I got the
1:52
other one yes that is the other one have
1:54
I got the other one yes you have the
1:55
other one as well this is such a weird
1:59
[Music]
2:03
thing okay I think I
2:08
know okay
2:09
so what pizza was pizza one my pizza one
2:14
was Domino's and what was your pizza i
2:17
mean your pizza two is Papa John pizza
2:19
two was to Papa John's i'm not telling
2:21
you if you're right or wrong yet okay
2:24
we're locked in we're locked in with
2:25
those answers mine Mine was Papa John's
2:28
first
2:30
and what was your whoever the second one
2:32
was
2:34
you can't you can't bring yourself to
2:35
say the name is that Yeah
2:38
you both are actually correct yeah you
2:40
both are correct yes yeah you both John
2:43
your first pizza was
2:45
u Domino's your first pizza was Domino's
2:48
the second one was Papa John and say um
2:52
your first pizza was uh Papa John second
2:56
was that shout out yeah yeah no thank
2:58
you
3:00
you can you can put away the CD now you
3:04
delete that resignation so you can keep
3:05
your job
3:07
can you text my wife and tell her I've
3:09
still got a job
3:13
hello and welcome to another edition of
3:14
City AM's Boredom Uncovered with me John
3:16
Robinson my guest for this episode is
3:18
the managing director of Papa John's UK
3:21
Chris Velaku the MD has held the top job
3:23
since the end of 2023 having previously
3:26
led TGI Fridays in Europe but after
3:28
leading a major restructuring of the
3:29
business how is Papa John's taking on
3:31
Dominoes in the race for pizza lovers
3:33
hard-earned cash without any further
3:35
delay let's dive in well Chris thank you
3:37
very much for coming on Border Uncovered
3:39
it's great to have you here thanks for
3:40
having me John good to be here i suppose
3:42
the first question is how much free
3:43
pizza do you get and are you sick of it
3:44
yet
3:46
i'm definitely not sick of it but I've
3:47
got the privilege of eating pizza quite
3:49
regularly favorite topping
3:52
pepperoni or the works the works is
3:55
pepperoni sausage olives and vegetables
3:59
so yeah love those it depends on the
4:00
mood I'm in sometimes I'm just straight
4:02
out margarita yeah and you must So you
4:05
say that you're eating pizza all the
4:06
time does it not get a bit uh bit sy no
4:09
not at all sounds like a dream job it
4:11
definitely a dream job definitely we've
4:13
got an innovation kitchen beneath our
4:16
offices and I'm I'd say I'm there more
4:18
often than not so yeah absolutely love
4:21
it yeah yeah and we've obviously just
4:22
done the uh taste test so you can keep
4:24
your job yeah yeah that's right delete
4:27
the resignation
4:29
i was of course 100% sure but yeah I
4:32
wasn't sure i was a bit hesitant so it
4:34
was a bit more 50/50 for me but you knew
4:36
instantly absolutely yeah how could you
4:39
tell i mean obviously you couldn't see
4:40
them but there must have been something
4:42
yeah just the the taste is very
4:44
distinguishable the the quality of the
4:46
ingredients the mouth feel the dough you
4:49
know all all the attributes that we're
4:51
aiming for deliver in our pizza so yeah
4:53
for me it's quite easy it's
4:56
differentiated from the competition
4:58
which you could of course can't say but
5:01
how can how is a Papa John's pizza
5:04
different to a Domino's pizza because I
5:06
I don't think I would be able to tell
5:07
them apart i mean I was I was just about
5:10
able to the the taste is is very
5:12
different we've got a very distinguish
5:14
distinguishable taste versus a
5:16
competition
5:17
what is that it's just ta it just tastes
5:19
different it's um we we we use high
5:22
quality ingredients we use fresh never
5:24
frozen dough and once you once you've
5:26
eaten our pizza you'll know exactly that
5:28
it's a Papa John's pizza versus uh the
5:30
competition probably why you you
5:32
couldn't tell as much as you should have
5:34
today should have yeah there we go there
5:36
we go um Chris you're obviously sitting
5:38
here after quite a lot of change in the
5:41
business over the last year or so you're
5:43
in a very strong position now but last
5:46
year in particular you went through a
5:48
big restructuring that must have been a
5:50
challenge to come through talk to me
5:52
about that process and the journey that
5:54
Papa John's UK has been on in the last
5:56
year 18 months yeah sure so I'll go back
5:58
to 2023
6:00
uh when two of our largest partners
6:02
flagged the risk of going insolvent so
6:04
we took a strategic decision to acquire
6:07
those take them on and and that was a
6:10
purposeful decision that we took so it
6:12
was 116 restaurants and we went from
6:14
being a uh franchise support business to
6:18
owning and running the largest estate
6:20
within the uh within the business and we
6:23
kept those restaurants for nearly a year
6:25
we tried to look at which ones we could
6:27
turn around and fortunately 60 of them
6:31
were really good so we reffranchiseed
6:32
them internally to incumbent franchises
6:36
13 of them we've kept under corporate
6:38
ownership but unfortunately 43 of them
6:41
we've had to close um and closing
6:45
restaurants never an easy decision it's
6:46
the last thing we ever want to do it's a
6:48
lot of jobs particularly when people's
6:50
livelihoods are at stake um but if
6:53
restaurants are perform performing badly
6:55
and losing a lot of money sometimes the
6:58
best decision decision is to close them
7:00
you know fast forward to today we're no
7:03
longer losing money and we're we're
7:04
we're looking at making a profit this
7:06
year and that's because of the difficult
7:07
decisions we made back then the
7:09
difficult decisions people losing their
7:11
livelihoods there's a lot of uncertainty
7:14
in their lives what impact did that have
7:17
on you personally as the ultimate
7:20
decision maker yeah i mean having people
7:23
lose their jobs is the last option for
7:25
us you know we tried everything to keep
7:28
the restaurants open we also uh did a p
7:32
purposeful um uh we prioritized putting
7:36
people into jobs so some people we
7:38
managed to save uh but yeah of course
7:40
it's never an easy decision and um it's
7:43
something that I wasn't happy doing but
7:45
it's something that we had to do as a
7:46
brand tell me about the thought process
7:48
behind it is it just looking at the cold
7:50
numbers and then you get you know the
7:53
end of the equation you get the number
7:55
of stores that needs to go or is it a
7:57
little bit more targeted than that it
7:59
must have been a very difficult decision
8:01
for you and the rest of the senior
8:02
leadership team to go through yeah very
8:06
difficult decision and if anything we
8:07
held on to the restaurants probably
8:09
longer than we should have to protect
8:11
the people for as long as we could uh
8:14
and we put a lot of effort into trying
8:16
those trying to turn those businesses
8:18
around but unfortunately they were even
8:20
in the long wrong location and the
8:23
performance of the restaurants was
8:24
really bad so that there was no business
8:27
case to keep them open and now you know
8:30
the other side of that restructure and
8:32
you say that you you know you're no
8:33
longer lossmaking but it it's still a
8:35
challenging economic times you know
8:38
we've had the increase in minimum wage
8:40
the employees national insurance
8:42
contributions and and now the uh the
8:45
tariffs in the US as well how is Papa
8:48
John's in the UK navigating that yeah
8:51
good question look it's a very difficult
8:53
time for the food industry but I believe
8:55
that we're well positioned for growth uh
8:58
in fact we've started the year very
9:00
strongly we're in transactional and comp
9:03
sales growth uh the pizza pizza delivery
9:07
business is growing it grew last year
9:09
it's forecasted to grow again this year
9:11
so we're in the growing sector um and I
9:14
think you know we're focusing on three
9:16
key areas we're focusing on raising our
9:19
standards partnering with our franchises
9:21
and loving our customers and what I mean
9:23
by that is we know our customers want
9:25
three things when they order Papa John
9:27
they want their pizza hot they want it
9:29
delivered in under 30 minutes and they
9:31
want their order accurate and we're
9:33
working maniacally to make sure our
9:35
operations at a standard where we can uh
9:38
meet everyone's expectations with every
9:39
order you think in the past that hasn't
9:42
been the case and that's where some of
9:43
those restaurants that did unfortunately
9:45
had to close weren't meeting those
9:47
targets yeah that that's correct i mean
9:48
in in the past we've probably let people
9:51
down more than we would have liked to
9:53
but that's been a combination of uh
9:55
maybe the wrong franchises um and
9:58
actually coming on to the second
10:00
important area partnering with our
10:01
franchises is we put that front and
10:03
center of everything we do because we're
10:04
a franchise business predominantly
10:07
having the right partners is integral to
10:09
any franchise business and we've been
10:12
focusing on on quality over quantity to
10:15
give you some numbers over the last five
10:17
years uh 5 years ago we had 114
10:21
franchises today we've got 61 so
10:25
definitely we're already in a much
10:26
better place our operational standards
10:30
are at the highest they've ever been and
10:32
our customer complaints have you know
10:34
they're way below national average so
10:36
we're in a really good place but
10:38
focusing every day to continue to
10:40
improve and and get better what does it
10:42
take to become a franchisee if I came to
10:45
you and said "I'm interested in opening
10:46
one near me." What's the process so at
10:50
the moment we're not taking new
10:51
franchises on purpose on purpose because
10:54
we're trying to make sure that we've got
10:56
the right growth from within uh within
10:59
our system sure but what it takes to be
11:01
a good to bring in a franchisee is we
11:03
need to know that they've got a good
11:05
history whether they've been preferably
11:07
they would have had restaurants they've
11:09
got a restaurant background a food
11:11
background or a hospitality background
11:13
and they've got the right amount of
11:15
finances and structure in place to be a
11:17
partner of ours but we're getting more
11:19
and more strict with who we bring in you
11:22
got to have a proven background
11:23
basically because I suppose you might
11:24
have got burnt in the past by Absolutely
11:26
absolutely preferably a proven
11:28
background and somebody who's going to
11:29
you know live the values that we live as
11:32
well and is there an upfront cost that
11:33
somebody's got to buy into the franchise
11:35
is there there is depending on what
11:38
region they they're looking to acquire
11:40
so we have different packages so yes
11:43
there is an upfront cost and they need
11:44
to have some financial wealth in the
11:46
bank as well is there a range of the buy
11:48
in that between quarter of million and a
11:51
half million so serious undertaking it's
11:53
it's serious undertaking you know when
11:55
you look comparatively versus other
11:57
brands it's it's still quite affordable
11:59
but you do need some financial uh
12:02
strength to get into the brand
12:03
absolutely talk to me about the
12:05
customers then because obviously you
12:06
you're up against Domino's which is
12:09
dominating in this market
12:11
um they've got so many more locations
12:15
across the UK um how do
12:19
you present Papa John's to potential
12:22
customers and try to win them from your
12:25
competitors what What's your USP why Why
12:28
should I as a customer come to you guys
12:30
yeah I I think we're in a very highly
12:31
competitive market i don't think that's
12:33
a bad thing i think competition's great
12:36
i think what we do we focus on what we
12:38
do best and that's our pizzas and we
12:41
want to differentiate through quality
12:43
innovation and taste those are the three
12:45
things that are taking our brand forward
12:47
and our customers love our pizza and we
12:49
want to gain new customers in the future
12:51
how do you innovate in the pizza
12:53
delivery space is it just new toppings
12:56
new
12:58
ingredients what does that look like in
12:59
practice great great question i think
13:01
our category is one of the most
13:02
innovative actually so we are a
13:05
customer-led business so all of the
13:07
innovation that we developed comes from
13:10
the requests from our customers and
13:12
we're looking sometimes we're looking 6
13:14
n 12 months ahead of the cycle of our of
13:17
our innovation cycle but we look to
13:19
develop products that customers want um
13:22
at the moment we've got a cheese toasty
13:25
pizza and and you know very nostalgic it
13:29
tastes exactly like the cheese toasties
13:31
you probably ate when you were growing
13:32
up um and that's new innovation we've
13:36
got a cheese cheeseburger cheddar
13:38
cheeseburger pizza as well again looking
13:41
to meet customers needs innovation is
13:44
for our current customers and bringing
13:46
new customers in as well innovation's
13:47
actually in our brand's DNA so it's one
13:50
of our uh one of our uh pillars um and
13:54
if you look at historically we've we've
13:56
got award-winning innovation at Papa
13:58
John's UK last year we had a a Tandoori
14:01
pizza which was award-winning winning
14:03
great range that was a limited time
14:05
offer earlier this year we partnered
14:07
with Levie the vegan meat sub substitute
14:11
brand and we did a vegan Hawaiian pizza
14:15
which was not for me that's not for me
14:17
which should not be on a pizza which was
14:19
um again awarded um at the Midas Awards
14:23
a few weeks back so really proud of our
14:24
innovation and you know over Christmas
14:25
we had a really successful festive
14:28
campaign yeah we had a we had a our our
14:30
festive pizza then we add up my personal
14:32
favorite was pigs and blankets okay so
14:34
yeah we're very innovative and we will
14:36
carry on being innovative i think that's
14:38
what our customers want from us and
14:39
that's what we'll continue to do where
14:41
do you stand on Hawaiian pizzas do you
14:43
think Pineapple be pizzas i I actually
14:45
love Hawaiian pizza i do you can have my
14:47
share that's for sure they're not for me
14:50
um Papa John's obviously US headquarters
14:53
company but none of the ingredients that
14:55
are sold on on UK pizzas are from the US
14:58
no they're not i mean a lot of the
15:00
flavor profile comes from the US as you
15:02
would imagine but the pizzas here are
15:05
different they're tapered to our local
15:07
consumer so the ingredients are you know
15:11
um European ingredients predominantly
15:13
where we couldn't normally get US
15:15
ingredients into the UK because some of
15:17
the US ingredients aren't allowed
15:19
they're not Europe absolutely absolutely
15:21
yeah they're not allowed and it's also
15:23
you know having a shorter supply chain
15:25
is better as well for us obviously we we
15:27
mentioned previously about the difficult
15:29
economic climate at the moment that
15:31
every business is facing yeah is there a
15:34
particular aspect of that that is the
15:36
most challenging for Papa John's in the
15:38
UK the cost increases have been
15:41
difficult for our franchise owners in
15:43
particular you know they've had national
15:45
insurance uh price rises ingredients
15:47
have been going up to be honest with you
15:49
so it's been a perfect storm of
15:52
difficulty for us as a brand but we're
15:54
continuing to weather the storm by
15:57
looking at selling more pizza so volume
15:59
is the game for us so we want to win by
16:02
through volume and is that through
16:05
advertising is that through opening new
16:07
Well you said you're not really taking
16:08
on new franchises so he's not opening
16:09
new sites so it must be advertising
16:11
spenders yeah sorry to interrupt we are
16:13
actually opening new sites with
16:14
incumbent franchises we've got a strong
16:16
pipeline we've already opened uh three
16:18
restaurants this year we've got a
16:20
pipeline of about 10 to 12 this year and
16:22
we're developing the pipeline for next
16:24
year so the brand is growing again um we
16:28
have recently relaunched the brand so
16:30
we've rebranded and we've got a new
16:32
campaign which is devoted to the doll
16:34
again highlighting our quality
16:36
attributes so we we are shouting about
16:40
the brand is back or the brand is here
16:42
and we're trying to gain new custom and
16:44
we're doing a good job of it at the
16:45
moment really exciting for us are you
16:47
optimistic about the state of the UK
16:50
economy and where it's going to be in
16:51
the next year or so
16:54
asking me today that's a very difficult
16:56
um uh question to answer but given the
16:59
history of the UK market given the
17:00
history of the category we're in yes I I
17:03
would say I am optimistic it's not going
17:06
to be it won't be it'll be a bumpy ride
17:08
but I'm sure we'll be we'll get through
17:10
it you know delivery is growing in the
17:12
UK pizza's growing in the UK and I
17:14
suspect it will carry on growing because
17:16
people need to eat we're we we're in a
17:18
we're in a category where people need to
17:20
eat and um yeah I think I think we're
17:22
going to be absolutely fine and the UK
17:24
is not going to fall out of love with
17:26
pizza anytime soon I suppose no
17:28
definitely not if anything it's just
17:30
going to grow it's um a great pizza is
17:32
great food right it's sharing food it's
17:34
socialable food it's a food for all
17:37
occasions and we're you know we feel
17:39
fortunate that we're able to serve so
17:41
many people regardless of you know what
17:43
the occasion is let's talk about you
17:45
Chris um I'm interested to know what
17:48
kind of leader you are you presidential
17:50
or are you a bit more i'd say I'm
17:53
definitely a transformational and
17:55
purposeful leader you know I lead what
17:57
does that mean at home i lead from the
18:00
front you know I lead by example m I I
18:03
set a clear strategy for the business
18:06
and rally the team around it you know
18:08
I'm definitely a people leader i believe
18:10
people are our most valuable asset um
18:14
yeah absolutely a transformational
18:16
leader churchillian speeches then at the
18:18
headquarters is that we lots of speeches
18:21
i don't know if they're quite
18:23
Churchillian but yeah absolutely
18:25
rallying the troops regularly what about
18:27
your work life balance obviously your
18:29
your job will be incredibly demanding at
18:31
work but you know you've got a life
18:33
outside of the the walls of Papa John's
18:36
HQ um tell me about how you manage that
18:38
i I I don't I probably haven't got a
18:40
great work life balance but I think when
18:43
you're running a an amazing business
18:45
which is growing like Papa John's you've
18:47
got to make sacrifices and I think those
18:49
sacrifices are worth it to be honest
18:50
with you it's difficult though isn't it
18:52
if you feel like you're missing out on
18:54
on something but at the end of the day
18:56
you've got to do what you got to do i
18:58
think it would be more difficult if you
18:59
didn't love what you were doing i love
19:01
what I do and I love seeing the results
19:03
that the UK's achieving so yeah no it's
19:07
great at the moment well you love it so
19:08
much you came back I suppose you've been
19:09
at Papan over a couple stints that's
19:11
right absolutely absolutely so it's my
19:13
second time with the brand i was here
19:15
for two and a half years back in 2008 i
19:18
left i had an opportunity to go and work
19:21
um for what at the time the largest
19:23
privately held hospitality business uh
19:26
but then yeah of course I came back but
19:28
even when I wasn't here I was still
19:30
eating the pizzas i was still a fan
19:33
got that line in yeah
19:36
it's true if you go back to um when you
19:38
first started Yeah us in business if you
19:40
could go back in the time machine and
19:41
talk to yourself what bit of advice
19:43
would you give younger Chris
19:47
oh
19:48
uh I would
19:50
say keep communicating i think
19:53
communication within organizations can
19:56
always be better i think I I recognized
19:59
that during my career but if I
20:00
recognized it earlier it would have made
20:01
my career career easier i think
20:04
businesses have got an issue with
20:06
communication but communication has to
20:08
be at the forefront of everything you do
20:10
what was your first job not a career job
20:12
but you know did you have a paper round
20:13
did you
20:14
sh What did you I had a number of of of
20:18
jobs well one that I held on to for a
20:20
long period of time and I remember
20:21
clearly was stacking shops at Tesco's
20:23
actually in the produce department which
20:25
was the first job that I remember
20:28
recognizing the importance of global
20:30
supply chain because well one minute
20:32
we're having French apples British
20:33
apples you know South African apples so
20:37
it w it it it educated me on the
20:40
importance of a global supply chain
20:41
because I could see that food was coming
20:43
from around the world whereas pretty
20:45
much before you maybe wouldn't have
20:46
thought about it at that young age that
20:47
sounds like a LinkedIn post in the
20:49
making that one doesn't it stacking
20:50
shelves at Tesco what it taught me about
20:52
global supply chain now can't recommend
20:54
it as a first job enough to be honest
20:56
with you fair enough over your career
20:58
obviously you you've had a lot of
21:00
success you must have done in order to
21:02
get to the position that you are at the
21:03
moment is there something in your career
21:05
that you're particularly proud of that
21:06
you've Great question i think if it
21:09
wasn't for this job I would have said
21:11
leading the brand's supply chain and
21:13
manufacturing through COVID and postcoid
21:15
if you remember there was a massive
21:17
labor shortage we had container
21:19
shortages lots of people were closing
21:21
restaurants around the world and we kept
21:24
our supply chain strong and we didn't
21:25
close any restaurants we didn't run out
21:27
of any ingredients which was quite uh an
21:29
amazing thing for our team to achieve
21:31
back then but definitely
21:34
uh working on the turnaround at the
21:36
moment is my biggest achievement by far
21:38
because it was a business that was you
21:41
know in significant decline had a number
21:43
of managing directors before my time um
21:46
high turnover of people and now it's you
21:50
know it's it's we're in an amazing place
21:51
at the moment really proud of the
21:53
efforts the team have done and I think
21:55
this is just the beginning of something
21:57
very exciting when you took over Papa
21:59
John's was there in the UK was there any
22:01
chance really of it going under as a
22:04
going concern i mean how desperate was
22:06
the situation we we were making
22:08
multi-million pound losses um so is that
22:12
a month or No annually a year but we've
22:15
got a strong parent owner in the US so
22:18
there wasn't any risk of the brand going
22:20
under but it was you know financially
22:24
damaging um so no no no no risk of it
22:27
going under but financially difficult
22:29
absolutely and we've talked about the
22:31
successes in your career but obviously
22:33
not any career is a is a linear line
22:36
upwards are there any failures or
22:38
anything that you did have you done in
22:40
your career that you maybe look back on
22:42
you wish you'd done differently with
22:44
with hindsight yeah yeah i think it's I
22:47
know it's a bit of a cliche but I I
22:48
found that I've I've learned more from
22:51
failures or from maybe working with
22:54
leaders that I didn't deem to be great
22:56
for example than I have from the
22:58
successes but I think with every failing
23:01
whatever it is you have to take the
23:02
learnings and grow and improve going
23:04
forward
23:06
is there something in particular that
23:07
still keeps you up at night something
23:09
that you worry about that's is in your
23:11
inbox at the moment at top of your
23:13
intray i think one of the things that
23:15
the food industry is waiting to better
23:18
understand at the moment is the
23:20
advertising regulations on the highfat
23:22
sugar and salts uh so there's a new
23:24
legislation coming into play in October
23:26
of this year but we're not quite clear
23:29
on what that's going to mean for for us
23:32
and for everyone else there's a due an
23:33
update in in the spring so we're waiting
23:36
for the update really but that's the
23:37
thing that I think is you know can
23:40
affect our what the way we do things so
23:42
if you had a direct line to to Kama or
23:44
Rachel Reeves and you said you picked up
23:46
the phone to them that's what you'd be
23:48
asking about yeah absolutely absolutely
23:50
and I'm uh Yeah 100% and I think I'm not
23:53
the only one every business leader would
23:55
be saying the same is there anything
23:56
else that you'd mentioned on that call
23:58
that you think the government should be
23:59
doing to support businesses like yours
24:03
start giving some relief to businesses
24:05
you know we've been at the forefront we
24:06
you know during COVID we stayed open to
24:08
serve people uh and I think the
24:12
hospitality industry itself needs a
24:15
little bit of relief from the government
24:16
I'd say because the government of course
24:18
did give out those co loans and the
24:20
grants and and support and things like
24:22
that so they did do something at the
24:23
time but you think they should do more
24:26
now i I think post that I think the the
24:30
the industry changed right it became a
24:32
much more competitive industry and I
24:34
think those businesses were having a
24:36
much harder time you know rents haven't
24:38
come down so I I definitely think
24:41
hospitality could do with some
24:42
additional relief absolutely
24:44
and when you uh look at your peers um
24:47
fellow senior leaders across the UK and
24:49
internationally are there any few
24:51
business leaders out there that
24:52
particularly inspire you you look to and
24:55
want to emulate uh I'd say lots of
24:58
people inspire me to be honest with you
24:59
but one that stands out probably Richard
25:02
Branson um I I I love what he's done
25:05
with his Virgin brand how he took it
25:07
from an unknown entity to you know the
25:09
mega business that it is today and also
25:11
how he took the fight to um British
25:14
Airways is quite admirable and all from
25:16
somebody who you know he's a people
25:18
person but he's also dyslexic and um
25:20
rightly so he hasn't let that affect him
25:22
so huge admiration for him as well where
25:26
do you see Papa John's going in the next
25:28
five years or so tell me about your
25:30
forward plans i I think Papa John's is
25:32
going to go from strength to strength
25:34
actually I know we are uh you'll see a
25:36
lot of new innovation coming from Papa
25:38
John's you'll see a lot of new growth
25:40
you'll see a lot of brand um information
25:44
you'll see our TV advert that we've just
25:46
launched you'll hear about us a lot on
25:47
radio um one of the things that we've
25:50
done this year is you know we've
25:52
strengthened our relationship with our
25:54
franchises and part of that process as
25:57
part of that process they've agreed to
26:00
invest a further 50% into national
26:02
marketing uh which shows you how much
26:05
faith they've got in the leadership team
26:06
and the brand so with that additional
26:08
funding we're doing a lot more above the
26:10
line media so really exciting really
26:13
really exciting that's why you're here
26:14
as well that's why I'm here absolutely
26:16
absolutely um I suppose the best thing
26:18
about your job as we talked about before
26:20
would be the or the free pizza that you
26:21
you get would that be would that be
26:23
right or be something maybe a little bit
26:24
more serious as an answer uh look two
26:26
things I'd say two things i think the
26:28
people I I think the people that I got
26:31
the privilege of leading and working
26:32
with every day are a joy to work for i
26:35
think they're uh the culture within our
26:37
organization is great and I feel proud
26:39
leading them and working with them on a
26:41
day-to-day basis and also the pizza i
26:43
mean what's what's what's not to like
26:46
what's not to like it's genuinely a fun
26:49
business and a fun industry to be in so
26:51
yeah if I really enjoy it but if you
26:53
weren't doing this you know if you
26:55
weren't pedaling pizza for a living what
26:56
would you be doing if I weren't doing
27:00
pizza for a living what would I be doing
27:02
um I'd be definitely still be in the
27:04
food industry but not in this
27:07
category uh and leading another
27:10
organization
27:11
um so yeah I' my ambition is to continue
27:14
in the food industry stay with Papa
27:15
John's of course but if you're asking me
27:17
if I weren't here yeah I'd still love to
27:19
be in the food industry i've got passion
27:20
for food and for people which food stuff
27:22
would you look to to move into is it ice
27:25
cream next is it something fun something
27:28
fun something fun is that important to
27:29
you having fun at work can you can you
27:31
do that in your job like realistically
27:33
fun is one of our values actually at
27:35
work um and I I definitely is very
27:38
important for me um I I think if you're
27:41
you spend so much time at work if you
27:42
can't have fun at work or enjoy what you
27:45
do then you're in the wrong job and I
27:47
make sure that I'm creating a platform
27:49
at Paper John's where people can excel
27:52
and also have fun brilliant chris thank
27:55
you very much for coming on board and
27:56
recovered it's great to have you thank
27:57
you John thanks for having me appreciate
27:58
it thank you
28:00
[Music]
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