The 海角视频 chief of pizza behemoth Papa Johns, Chris Phylactou, has hinted at a return to profit in 2025, following the closure of over 40 outlets last year.
The managing director confirmed that the company is "no longer losing money" and is on course to report its first 海角视频 profit since 2021, as reported by .
In an upcoming episode of , Phylactou candidly discussed the impact of shuttering so many stores on both the business and himself personally.
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City AM reported in October 2024 that the 海角视频 branch of Papa Johns had swallowed almost £20m in losses the year before it decided to shut down more than 40 underperforming restaurants.
The Milton Keynes -based division recorded a pre-tax loss of £19.9m for 2023, having also lost £4.1m in 2022.
Data from Companies House revealed a slight increase in turnover from £95.1m to £95.9m over the 12-month period.
The last time Papa Johns savoured a pre-tax profit in the 海角视频 was back in 2021 when it cooked up £8.1m, with a turnover of £102.3m.
Closing restaurants 'the last thing we ever want to do'
Speaking on the forthcoming episode of Boardroom Uncovered, Phylactou admitted: "In 2023 two of our largest partners flagged the risk of going insolvent.
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"We took a strategic decision to acquire those and we kept those restaurants for nearly a year.
"We tried to look at which ones we could turn around and fortunately 60 of them were really good.
"We franchised them internally to incumbent franchisees, 13 of them we've kept under corporate ownership, but unfortunately 43 of them we've had to close. Closing restaurants is never an easy decision.
"It's the last thing we ever want to do. It's a lot of jobs, particularly when people's livelihoods are at stake.
"But if restaurants perform performing badly and losing a lot of money, sometimes the best decision is to close them."
Papa Johns 海角视频 is 'no longer losing money'
The 海角视频 division of Papa Johns has turned a corner financially, with its chief revealing that the company is "no longer losing money" and is on track to turn a profit by 2025.
"That's because of the difficult decisions we made back then", Phylactou said.
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"Having people lose their jobs is the last option for us. We tried everything to keep the restaurants open."
He added: "It's never an easy decision and something that I wasn't happy doing, but it's something that we had to do as a brand.
"We held on to the restaurants probably longer than we should have to protect the people for as long as we could.
"And we put a lot of effort into trying those trying to turn those businesses around.
"But unfortunately, they were even the wrong location and the performance of the restaurants was really bad.
"So there was no business case to keep them open."
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