Dive Brief:
- Papa Johns will add Pan Pizzas to its permanent menu on Thursday, according to a press event held earlier this week.
- The pizza brand said consumers clamored for the pie category, which has edge-to-edge toppings and a cheese-laced crust.
- Jenna Bromberg, the brand’s chief marketing officer, said the new menu category was part of Papa Johns’ menu strategy under Todd Penegor. This approach has focused on increasing the consumption of its core pizza platforms, rather than using LTOs, sides or other menu items as temporary traffic drivers.
Dive Insight:
The Pan Pizza category expands the versatility of the brand’s main pizza offerings by adding a slightly premium product to the mix. Papa Johns had a version of pan pizza on its menu in 2016, but the item was discontinued in 2019. The chain has been planning its revival for years.
The brand tried multiple variations of the menu item through the testing process, before settling on the version launching this week, which saw positive consumer sentiment.
“Consumers felt this was high quality,” Bromberg said. “It exceeded their expectations. And the great news is this wasn't just what we heard in a controlled environment. This is what we heard in our test market.”
Mark Gabrovic, Papa Johns’ vice president of culinary, said the chain brushes the underside of the pizza with a buttery garlic sauce, but includes a blend of parmesan and romano cheese in the crust itself, which prevents the dough from becoming soggy and ensures the pizza remains crisp.
The pizza has edge-to-edge toppings, which means it develops a crispy cheese “crown” when cooked, Gabrovic said.
The pizza dough itself is light and fluffy, to prevent the pizza from feeling heavy. This combination of flavor and indulgence makes the platform a premium menu category.
The chain also had to make some equipment and operational changes to optimize the production of the Pan Pizzas, Bromberg said, which differ both from the company’s standard pizza and from previous iterations of pan pizza.
“We did a lot of work over the last year to 18 months to get our oven bake temperatures and oven timing just right across our entire system,” Bromberg said. “We had to work to make sure the ovens were set up to bake this product consistently.”
But, Bromberg said, Papa Johns wanted to also emphasize value with its Pan Pizzas.
“It was really important for us to price it at $11.99, so it was accessible, and we could get this product into as many hands as possible,” Bromberg said.
The Pan Pizza is the first of several product innovations to come this year, all of which, Bromberg said, balance pricing with premium ingredients.
Papa Johns needs a successful traffic driver. The brand has posted negative same-store sales growth in six of the last nine quarters. While it has outperformed Pizza Hut in recent quarters, it is lagging behind Domino’s by a considerable margin. And Domino’s greatly expanded its core menu last year, with the launch of Stuffed Crust pizza. As consumer definitions of value shift to encompass more than just the price point, menu innovation will be a key competitive field in the pizza sector.
