To Russia with pizza: Papa John’s franchisee has big plans for St. Petersburg

The St. Petersburg Times – in Russia, not Florida – is reporting that a Papa John’s International Inc. franchisee is planning to open as many as 200 restaurants in and around Russia’s second-largest city.

WorldWide Papa’s is the exclusive regional developer for Louisville-based Papa John’s pizza restaurants, according to the story.

The group plans to open up to 40 new locations in St. Petersburg during the next three years. From the story:

“By 2012, we plan to be the biggest pizza chain in this city,” Darrin Stock, CEO and founder of the company, said in a telephone interview Monday. Stock said WWP was inspired to come up with the major expansion plan on the St. Petersburg pizza restaurant market when they realized that existing restaurants in the city “generated some of the top revenues” among the company’s 3,000 restaurants worldwide, with an average turnover of 1.2 million euros.

Now, here’s the weird part. The reason American fast-food chains tend to do well in developing markets is because they have better, more efficient systems and practices than the local competition.

But in Russia, WWP is dumping the carry-out pizza Papa John’s does so well here in favor of a family-style, “dine-in” concept.

The story is, for an English publication in a foreign country, exceptionally well-written.

The reporter, Irina Tetova, sets up a Papa John’s versus Pizza Hut scenario, interviewing the regional Pizza Hut manager.

With the move into Russia, Papa John’s may be acing out Pizza Hut parent Yum Brands Inc. David Novak, Yum Brands CEO, president and chairman, has stated in media reports that Yum Brands sees Russia, India and other countries as the next big markets of opportunity, similar to China now.

So far,  Papa John’s is little brother to Yum Brands and its unparalleled success story in the Far East.

In China, Yum Brands opens a store every 18 hours, mostly KFCs.

While Papa John’s has 3,600 stores world-wide, Yum brands has about 36,000, with 4,000 just in China.