Papa Johns shakes up marketing leadership as its struggles continue

Papa Johns shakes up marketing leadership as its struggles continue

Alicia Kelso

Thu, August 6, 2026 at 5:35 PM GMT+3 4 min read

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Papa Johns can't seem to find enough traction to turn same-store sales positive in North America. Or even close.

The pizza chain reported a decline of 8.3% Thursday, with CEO Todd Penegor citing "ongoing headwinds driven by the softer consumer environment, lower order volumes, and a highly promotional QSR marketplace." This marked the company's fourth negative quarter in a row and ninth out of the past 10.

Since late 2023, only Q2 2025 was positive, at 1%. The company's performance is also going in the wrong direction. That -8.3% follows -6.4% in Q1 2026, -5% in Q4 2025, and -3% in Q3 2025.

Notably, the sharp second-quarter decline came despite a comprehensive global campaign in partnership with Toy Story 5 that included themed pizzas, collectibles, merchandise, popups, and more.

Papa Johns launched a "transformation strategy" shortly after Penegor joined in August 2024 and he said during the earnings call before market that it's "taking longer than anticipated."

He added, however, that the company continues to execute its strategy and is seeing "encouraging progress," including Papa Rewards membership growth, supply chain savings, and "AI-driven improvements to the customer ordering experience."

"Our loyalty program remained a clear area of strength in the quarter, with comparable sales from loyalty customers outperforming non-loyalty customers by 12 percentage points, and our Papa Rewards program surpassing 42 million members in the second quarter. These loyalty members are our most valuable customers, generating tickets that are 6% higher per order, and ordering approximately twice as often as non-loyalty customers," Penegor said.

On the menu, orders with multiple pizzas increased, but that was offset by the pizza mix shifting to smaller, non-specialty pizzas. Sales were also pressured by declines in sides and desserts, though sales of the new oven-toasted sandwich lineup "almost fully offset the removal of Papadias and opened a new food category," Penegor said.

He expects the pressured consumer environment to continue throughout the rest of the year and Papa Johns has therefore revised its full-year guidance downward while suspending its dividend.

"While our financial performance isn't where we'd like it to be, we have a clear understanding of how to improve our results and gain market share," he said. "We continue to see two clear opportunities to gain share — continuing to strengthen our value perception with more targeted, personalized offers and a consistent, elevated customer experience, and attracting new customers through a sharper aggregator strategy, total addressable market expansion, a rebuilt innovation pipeline, and a re-energized local presence through re-established co-ops."

To strengthen its value perception, Papa Johns added its sandwiches to the Papa Pairings menu and offered an Epic Stuffed Crust Pizza at a $13.99 price point. In the second half of the year, the company plans to launch a more traditional barbell strategy that includes its most popular items offered in shorter, targeted windows.

"We're taking a targeted approach to improving our value proposition, rather than engaging in sustained extreme discounting at the national level, as we've seen some of our competitors do," Penegor said.

Papa Johns is also rolling out a new personalization engine within its AI-powered customer relationship management platform.

"We believe that once fully deployed, this technology will allow us to better tailor communications and offers to our customers drive incremental purchases from both new and lapsed customers and preserve restaurant margins while offering customers compelling value in key moments," Penegor said.

He added that the company is accelerating investments to "strengthen our competitive position, improve restaurant economics, and attract new customers."

The company has also shaken up some of its leadership team, including naming a new global chief marketing officer in Chris Lyn-Sue, who has been with Papa Johns since 2022. He previously held leadership roles at Popeyes, Restaurant Brands International, and Bacardi. He succeeds Jenna Bromberg, who has been CMO since November 2024.

Also, John Matter has been named to the newly created position of global chief development officer and assistant corporate secretary. He has been with Papa Johns since 2013.

Caroline Miller Oyler, current chief administrative officer, has been named chief legal and administrative officer, while Chris Phylactou, current managing director of UK, Europe and Canada, has been named senior vice president of international.

Penegor said these appointments will help the company deliver on its strategic transformation, adding that they each "bring the discipline, focus, and operational insight required to position Papa Johns for improved performance in 2027 and beyond."

Domestic company-owned restaurants were down 8.9% and North America franchised restaurants were down 8.2%. Conversely, international same-sales increased 1.5% compared with the prior year second quarter. During the quarter, Papa Johns opened 50 new restaurants, including nine in North America and 41 in international markets.

Net income was down to $9 million from $10 million the prior year, while adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) was flat at $53 million.

Contact Alicia Kelso at Alicia.Kelso@informa.com

Follow her on TikTok: @aliciakelso