Papa John's boss: 'Perfect storm' of rising costs

Published: 2025-05-13 01:31:17 ET PZZA

Published on 05/13/2025 at 01:31

THE UK boss of pizza chain Papa John's has labelled the rising costs his business is facing a "perfect storm of difficulty".

Speaking on the latest episode of City AM's Boardroom Uncovered podcast, man- aging 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 em- ployers' contributions to national insurance as one of the major impacts on his business since Labour came to power last summer.

The boss of Papa John's said: "It's been a perfect storm of difficulty for us as a brand. But we're SCAN continuing to weather the storm by EPISODE looking at selling more pizza.

"So volume is the game for us and we want to win by volume.

"We are actually opening new sites. We've got a pipeline of about 10 to 12 this year. And we're developing a pipeline for next year. So the brand is growing again."

" Also in the episode, Papa John's UK MD revealed the company is eyeing a return to prfit in 2025 after closing more than 40 restaurants last year.

Phylactou confirmed the business is "no longer losing money" and is on track to report its first UK profit since 2021.

City AM reported in October 2024 that the UK arm of Papa FOR Johns lost almost £20m in the year EPISODE before it decided to close more than 40 restaurants.