Papa Johns’ Identical-Retailer Gross sales Hit a Wall in Q3 2022

• Greater pricing and extra summer time journey seem to have resulted in damaging gross sales progress for Papa Johns in 2022’s third quarter.
• Pizza Hut and Domino’s confirmed an increase of 1% and a couple of% in same-store gross sales in the identical quarter.

Papa Johns’ same-store gross sales growth appears to have gone barely bust within the third quarter of 2022 after 12 straight quarters of progress.

The chain attributed the slowdown partly to post-pandemic journey going up this summer time. “Our prospects are spending much less time at residence or within the workplace and ordering much less pizza supply,” Ann Gugino, Papa Johns’ chief monetary officer, stated in a Bloomberg report.

However greater pricing of 8% to 10% additionally performed a job, Papa Johns CEO Rob Lynch stated, based on QSR Journal. “Because the economic system continues to be challenged and client sentiment continues to say no, there’s going to be extra value sensitivity.”

The gross sales drop wasn’t dramatic. Papa Johns’ whole revenues had been down by round $2 million—lower than 1%—within the quarter ending September 25, 2022. And the chain’s executives have good cause for optimism: In response to QSR, 2022 “would be the highest gross sales quantity within the model’s historical past.”

The third quarter is often slower for pizza supply as People hit the street on holidays.

“Pizza does higher in dangerous climate, when persons are sort of caught of their homes in colder or wet climate,” QSR reported Lynch as saying. “We didn’t see that through the pandemic as a result of individuals had been of their homes, however now we’re seeing that return to seasonality. It was additionally exacerbated this summer time as individuals had been doing much more touring after being cooped up the final couple years.”

For 2022’s third quarter, Pizza Hut and Domino’s had higher luck, each displaying constructive same-store gross sales progress—1% and a couple of% respectively.

Papa Johns stays a pressure within the trade with 3,358 shops in North America. It has additionally centered on menu innovation up to now few years, which has helped spark a exceptional comeback for the reason that ouster of founder John Schnatter.

In mid-September 2022, the chain launched a variety of so-called “space-flavored” pizzas and different menu objects that includes chorizo sausage. Final December, Papa Johns provided a limited-time New York-style pizza, and its Papadia, a lunchtime particular based mostly on the piadina, rolled out in April 2020. That was adopted by the pepperoni-heavy Shaq-a-Roni pizza, named in honor of spokesperson Shaquille O’Neal, which has been a recurring particular provide since June 2020.