It’s been more than six years since Papa Johns closed its last Ann Arbor store. It ranks fourth among pizza chains in U.S. locations, but stores on W. Stadium, E. Huron St., and Plymouth Rd. are all long gone.
Now the chain is back with a south-side shop in the Colonnade, one of over 275 franchises owned by Canfield, Ohio–based Bajco Group, including the nearest store, in Ypsilanti Township’s Fountain Square Shopping Center.
“Covid boosted all the pizza sales up, so we definitely missed out, but we’re excited to be back,” says LeeAnn Hyndman, Bajco’s director of operations for Michigan.
She’s been with the company for about twenty years, enough time to bear witness to some troubled times and a strategic pivot. She says founder and namesake John Schnatter had a remarkable story—he grew the company from an oven in the back of his father’s southern Indiana tavern into a global powerhouse—but the focus on a single public face, as with Jared of Subway infamy, proved problematic.
Schnatter was forced to step down as CEO and board chair in 2018 in the wake of controversial and racially insensitive comments. A Forbes exposé (paywall) also detailed a toxic “bro” culture among company executives at the time. Since then, the company has dropped the apostrophe from its name and made a concerted push to emphasize team and community (sponsoring school and organization fundraisers, for example) over personality, Hyndman says. The first corporate values now listed on their website are diversity, equity, inclusion, and teamwork.
Hyndman expects the takeout and delivery store’s hours to extend to 2 a.m. once staffing is geared up. She advises customers to order using their online app for the best deals and rewards.
Papa Johns, 877 W. Eisenhower Pkwy. (734) 249–5484. Daily 10 a.m.–11 p.m. papajohns.com
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