Franchise Focus

The fixer-upper franchisee: How Chris Patel turned neglected Papa Johns locations into a 70-store powerhouse

An entrepreneur with a background in finance leveraged his business acumen and a keen eye for opportunity to grow his Papa Johns franchise from four to 70 stores by acquiring neglected locations and turning them into profitable units.

Photo: Papa Johns

August 7, 2025 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Editor, Networld Media Group

Since his high school days, when he was dreaming of becoming an entrepreneur instead of an engineer or a doctor, Chris Patel has been focused on one thing: the quick service restaurant space. After earning his bachelor's and master's degrees in finance, he became a Papa Johns franchisee in 2020 by acquiring four stores. In less than five years, he has grown his enterprise to 70 locations across four states by acquiring neglected stores and revitalizing them through strong leadership, strategic pricing, and a renewed focus on customer service.

Chris Patel. Photo: Papa Johns

Within the first two years alone, Patel had grown to 10 Papa Johns' stores.

"In October of 2022, I think we scaled our operations and organization in a way where we truly focus on a robust growth acquisition, and that's when we ran out and started acquiring larger networks and also building stores after," Patel said in a phone interview with Pizza Marketplace. "That's helped us grow in the last three years."

Patel said he had been looking at the pizza segment as a whole before joining Papa Johns. He looked at other competitive brands, but Papa Johns was a fan favorite for him as a customer. He said for him, it was finding a brand that had the right product, premium ingredients and not just being the lowest priced pizza.

"We saw tons of growth opportunities in Papa Johns through development prior to getting in," Patel said. "It had the proper product, and the brand had the market appeal." He added that the market had a lot of single-unit franchisees that were not unifying the market.

Operations

Today, Patel runs 70 Papa Johns stores. His units are in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. When searching for stores to acquire, he looks for the upside of locations and studies their profits and losses.

"Each situation was a different level of neglect by their owners, and for me, that was the opportunity as to how I could step into those roles and fulfill the neglect (owners) had caused their businesses over the years," Patel said. For example, in a single unit situation, there was no GM. The owner was playing GM himself and would work seven days a week with minimal amount of support staff, as the current employees were only worried about making salary and getting by with the business.

When Patel took over, he recruited a general manager and a marketing specialist. He put together the structured team required to run a Papa Johns unit. "That was an easy fix, and that's what we targeted," Patel added. With the span of a few months, sales grew.

"The key focus points were how do I go in and improve prior owners' abuse in terms of adding the right resources, remodeling the asset, just creating a better working environment and a better customer environment when they come to our location," Patel said.

Patel had a robust acquisition pipeline from 2022 to 2024 as he had purchased 44 units. He said that is from where most of his aggressive growth came.

The sheer neglect of many of these stores was both surprising and challenging for Patel and his team. These owners would raise prices until it made sense for the stores but not for the customers. Patel reversed the pricing structure which was more aggressive and provided more value for the customer – in short, he was growing sales through transactions and not tickets, which was the prior owners' mentality.

Changing the mindset for the employees in the stores and the customers who frequented them was critical to success.

Photo: Papa Johns

Hiring and retention

Patel said he focuses on creating an incentive program for general managers and retaining employees through acquisition. That took training and mentoring to undo the years of neglect seen by previous owners.

"At the end of the day, your people just want to be heard," Patel added. "For us, we are super involved. We are in the stores ourselves and that plays a key role that the employees can see the ownership firsthand. They have ownership firsthand, and I think that kind of created a level of culture in the company."

Today, employees take pride in their locations because they understand the company culture and what Patel and his team stand for. Most of the recruitment comes from referrals.

Challenges

Rising food costs have been challenging for Patel and his team. "In the current competitive space, we are seeing tons of our fellow peers bringing the price up and it's just kind of finding the right balance to getting in front of the consumer and being that true value player.

"For us, currently in this environment that's one line item that we are seeing and kind of struggling – our consumers are struggling for cash," Patel added. "How can we as a franchisee in a time like this be the innovator in the value space?"

Patel said they're experimenting with customer appreciation days where customers get medium pizzas for $3.99.

Technology

Patel said in the last year, Papa Johns' technology department has reinvented itself.

There have been several positive updates to the app. The email marketing program has been revamped, and the brand has invested in tools to help its franchisees reach its customers.

"From a tech side I think the brand has done a phenomenal job of growing all the resources we need to reach our customers, and I think at the end of the day, that's the most important tool a franchisee could have on hand," Patel added.

Banking on the future

Patel said he will continue to growth through acquisitions, and he also has an agreement with the brand to build 50 locations in the next five years in his current markets.

"We see enough growth that we will double or triple our size in the next five years," Patel said. "At the end of the day, as long as it's a quality product and a quality brand, you're on a path of success."

About Mandy Wolf Detwiler

Mandy Wolf Detwiler is the managing editor at Networld Media Group and the site editor for PizzaMarketplace.com and QSRweb.com. She has more than 20 years’ experience covering food, people and places.

An award-winning print journalist, Mandy brings more than 20 years’ experience to Networld Media Group. She has spent nearly two decades covering the pizza industry, from independent pizzerias to multi-unit chains and every size business in between. Mandy has been featured on the Food Network and has won numerous awards for her coverage of the restaurant industry. She has an insatiable appetite for learning, and can tell you where to find the best slices in the country after spending 15 years traveling and eating pizza for a living.

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