PAPA JOHNS INTERNATIONAL INC (PZZA) Business

Item 1. Business

General

Papa John’s International, Inc., a Delaware corporation (referred to as the “Company,” “Papa John’s,” “Papa Johns” or in the first person notations of “we,” “us” and “our”), operates and franchises pizza delivery and carryout restaurants and, in certain international markets, dine-in and delivery restaurants under the trademark “Papa Johns.” Papa Johns began operations in 1984. At December 28, 2025, there were 6,083 Papa Johns restaurants in operation, consisting of 475 Company-owned and 5,608 franchised restaurants operating in 50 countries and territories. In discussions of our business, “Domestic” is defined as within the contiguous United States, “North America” includes Domestic and Canada, and “International” includes the rest of the world other than North America.

Strategy

We are committed to delivering on our brand promise “BETTER INGREDIENTS. BETTER PIZZA.®” and we believe our business strategy is designed to drive sustainable long-term, profitable growth. As Papa Johns transforms the business to accelerate profitable growth across its restaurant system, we are focused on the following strategic priorities:

Focusing on our core product proposition and improving innovation across the barbell. Traditional, superior-quality pizza is the foundation of our success, and accelerating product innovations that expand beyond pizza and complement our core offerings is key to attracting a broad customer base and expanding our addressable market. Consumers know us for BETTER INGREDIENTS. BETTER PIZZA. and we need to deliver on this promise consistently, every day, to every customer, across every restaurant.

Amplifying our marketing message to drive customer consideration and call to action across target segments by emphasizing quality and value. Our approach will leverage our individualized knowledge of our customers and vast consumer data to create more personalized offers, differentiate our brand through creativity and disruption and may include supplemental investments to reach a wider audience through traditional and digital advertising, ensuring a strong presence in key regional and local markets.

Investing in our technology to deliver a more seamless and personalized experience across our digital assets and owned channels as well as to drive greater efficiency throughout our operations by leveraging our data to inform our decisions and better serve our customers. With most of our sales occurring through digital channels, we believe these investments will improve the overall customer and team member experience.

Differentiating our customer experience to meet and exceed the convenience, value and quality expectations of the customer in every channel. By simplifying our processes, optimizing our menu, and employing technology, our teams will be set up to be the best pizza makers in the business while ensuring a frictionless experience to drive purchase and build loyalty.

Partnering with and evolving our franchisee base to be growth oriented – focusing on increasing our market share through strategic new restaurant development in priority markets.

In order to lay the foundation for our next phase of growth, we have enacted broad-ranging plans to transform our North America and International businesses. In 2023, we initiated international transformation initiatives (the “International Transformation Plan”). With the completion of the International Transformation Plan in late 2025, we began a new business transformation program (the “Enterprise Transformation Plan”) in December 2025. Refer to “Item 7 - Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Recent Developments and Trends” for further information about these programs.

Segment Overview

Papa Johns has four defined reportable segments: Domestic Company-owned restaurants, North America franchising, North America commissaries, and International.

Domestic Company-owned Restaurants

The Domestic Company-owned restaurant segment consists of the operations of all Domestic Company-owned restaurants and derives its revenues principally from retail sales of pizza and other food and beverage products. Of the total 3,523

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North American restaurants open as of December 28, 2025, 462 units, or approximately 13%, were Company-owned. In 2025, the 428 Domestic Company-owned restaurants included in the full year’s comparable restaurant base generated average annual unit sales of $1.3 million.

Operating Company-owned restaurants allows us to improve operations, training, marketing and quality standards for the benefit of the entire Papa Johns system.

North America franchising

The North America franchising segment consists of our franchise sales and support activities and derives its revenues from the sale of franchise and development rights and the collection of royalties from our franchisees located in the United States and Canada. Our North American franchised restaurants, which included 2,664 restaurants in the full year’s comparable base for 2025, generated average annual unit sales of $1.1 million. These sales, while not included in the Company’s revenues, contribute to our royalty revenues, franchisee marketing fund contributions, and commissary revenue.

North America commissary

The North America commissary segment comprises 11 full-service regional dough production and distribution centers (Quality Control Centers, or “QC Centers”) in the United States, which supply pizza sauce, dough, food products, paper products, smallwares and cleaning supplies twice weekly to each traditional restaurant served. This system enables us to monitor and control product quality and consistency while lowering food and other costs. We also have one QC Center in Canada, which produces and distributes fresh dough. We evaluate the QC Center system capacity in relation to existing restaurants’ volumes and planned restaurant growth, and facilities are developed or upgraded as operational or economic conditions warrant. To ensure consistent food quality, each Domestic franchisee is required to purchase dough and pizza sauce from our QC Centers and to purchase all other supplies from our QC Centers or other approved suppliers.

International

The International segment is defined as all restaurant operations outside of the United States and Canada. As of December 28, 2025, there were 2,560 International restaurants, comprised of 13 Company-owned restaurants in the United Kingdom (“UK”) and 2,547 franchised restaurants. The Company currently operates one International QC Center in the UK. The International segment also consists of distribution sales to Papa Johns restaurants located in the UK and our franchise sales and support activities, which derive revenues from sales of franchise and development rights and the collection of royalties from our International franchisees. Other QC Centers outside North America are operated by franchisees pursuant to license agreements or by other third parties.

All other

All other business units that do not meet the quantitative or qualitative thresholds for determining reportable segments, which are not operating segments, are referred to as “all other.” These consist of operations that derive revenues from franchise contributions to our marketing funds and the sale, principally to Company-owned and franchised restaurants, of information systems and related services used in restaurant operations, including our point-of-sale system, online and other technology-based ordering platforms.

See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and “Note 22. Segment Information” of “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements” for financial information about our segments.

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Development

At December 28, 2025, there were 6,083 Papa John’s restaurants operating in 50 countries and territories, as follows:

Our Domestic Company-owned restaurant growth strategy may entail opening restaurants in existing or new markets as appropriate, thereby increasing consumer awareness, increasing market share, improving customer service and enabling us to take advantage of operational and marketing scale efficiencies, or closing restaurants in existing markets. We have co-developed Domestic markets with some franchisees or divided markets among franchisees and may continue to use market co-development in the future, where appropriate. Our Domestic Company-owned markets continue to include strong performing restaurants that remain attractive as either Company-owned or franchised locations.

Our experience in developing markets indicates that market penetration through the opening of multiple restaurants in a particular region results in increased average restaurant sales over time. We will establish a development or a master franchise agreement with a franchisee for the opening of a specified number of restaurants within a defined period of time and specified geographic area. Similar to our Domestic Company-owned restaurant growth strategy, our International strategy has been shown to build higher consumer awareness, increased market share, and improved operational efficiencies.

Franchise Program

We continue to attract qualified and experienced franchisees that we consider to be a vital part of our continued growth. We believe our relationship with our franchisees is fundamental to the performance of our brand and we strive to maintain a collaborative relationship with our franchisees. Franchisees are approved on the basis of the applicant’s business background, restaurant operating experience and financial resources.

North America Development and Franchise Agreements. We enter into development agreements with our franchisees in North America for the opening of a specified number of restaurants within a defined period of time and specified geographic area. A franchise agreement is generally executed once a franchisee secures a location. Our current standard franchise agreement requires the franchisee to pay a royalty fee of 5% of gross revenue, net of certain taxes, discounts, and refunds, and the majority of our existing franchised restaurants have a 5% contractual royalty rate in effect. Incentives offered from time to time to franchisees may reduce the contractual royalty rate paid.

Substantially all existing franchise agreements have an initial 10-year term with a 10-year renewal option. We have the right to terminate a franchise agreement for a variety of reasons, including a franchisee’s failure to make payments when due or failure to adhere to our operational policies and standards. However, many state franchise laws limit our ability as a franchisor to terminate or refuse to renew a franchise.

International Development Agreements. In international markets, we generally enter into a development agreement for the opening of a specified number of restaurants within a defined period of time and specified geographic area. Under a development agreement with master franchise rights, upon meeting certain conditions, the franchisee has the right to sub-franchise a portion of the development to one or more sub-franchisees approved by us. A unit license agreement is generally executed once a franchisee secures a location.

Our current standard international development agreements and unit license agreements provide for payment to us of a royalty fee of 5% of gross revenue net of certain taxes, discounts, and refunds. For international agreements with master franchise rights, the master franchisee generally sets its own sub-franchise royalty but the sub-franchise royalty received by the Company is generally 3% of gross revenue, net of certain taxes and refunds. The remaining terms applicable to the operation of individual restaurants are substantially equivalent to the terms of our Domestic franchise agreement. In certain

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cases, development agreements may be negotiated at other-than-standard terms for fees and royalties, and we may offer various development and royalty incentives.

Franchise Operations. All franchisees are required to operate their Papa Johns restaurants in compliance with our policies, standards and specifications, including matters such as menu items, ingredients, and restaurant design. Franchisees have full discretion in human resource practices, and generally have full discretion to determine the prices to be charged to customers, but we generally have the authority to set maximum price points for nationally advertised promotions.

Franchisee Loans. Selected Domestic and International franchisees have borrowed funds from us, principally for the purchase of restaurants from us or other franchisees or, in certain international markets, for construction and development of new restaurants. Loans made to franchisees can bear interest at fixed or floating rates and in most cases are secured by the fixtures, equipment and signage of the restaurant and/or are guaranteed by the franchise owners. At December 28, 2025, net loans outstanding totaled $6.6 million. See “Note 2. Significant Accounting Policies” of “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements” for additional information.

Marketing Programs

Our Domestic marketing strategy consists of national advertising via television, print, direct mail, digital, mobile marketing, loyalty marketing and social media channels. Our digital marketing activities have increased significantly over the past several years in response to increasing customer use of online and mobile technology. Local advertising efforts may include television, radio, print, direct mail, restaurant-to-door flyers, digital, mobile marketing and local social media channels.

Domestic Company-owned and franchised Papa Johns restaurants within a defined market may, but are not required to, join an area advertising cooperative (“Co-op”). Each member restaurant contributes a percentage of sales to the Co-op for market-wide programs, such as television, radio, digital and print advertising, and sports sponsorships. The rate of contribution and uses of the monies collected are determined by a majority vote of the Co-op’s members.

The domestic marketing efforts are supported by media, print, digital and electronic advertising materials that are produced by Papa John’s Marketing Fund, Inc. (“PJMF”), our national marketing fund. PJMF is a consolidated nonstock corporation, designed to operate at break-even for the purpose of designing and administering advertising and promotional programs for all participating Domestic restaurants. PJMF produces campaigns and buys air time for Papa Johns national television commercials and advertises the Company’s products through digital media including banner advertising, paid search-engine advertising, mobile marketing, social media advertising and marketing, loyalty marketing, text messaging, aggregator advertising and email. PJMF also engages in other brand-building activities, such as consumer research and public relations activities. Domestic Company-owned and franchised Papa Johns restaurants are required to contribute a certain percentage of sales to PJMF.

In international markets, our marketing focuses on reaching customers who live or work within a trading area of a Papa Johns restaurant. Our international markets use a combination of advertising strategies, including television, radio, print, digital, mobile marketing and local social media depending on the size of the local market.

Human Capital

Our team members are critical to our success. As of December 28, 2025, we employed approximately 9,400 persons, of whom approximately 7,000 were team members at Company-owned restaurants, approximately 500 were management personnel at Company-owned restaurants, approximately 700 were corporate personnel and approximately 1,200 were QC Center team members. Our team members are non-unionized, and most restaurant team members work part-time and are paid on an hourly basis.

Our franchisees are independent business owners, so their employees are not our employees and therefore are not included in our employee count. We estimate the total number of persons in the Papa Johns system, including our team members, franchisees and the team members of franchisees, was approximately 89,700 as of December 28, 2025.

Culture

At Papa Johns, we welcome a wide array of voices to our table. An inclusive environment is essential to attracting the talent that makes Papa Johns the world’s best pizza company. As such, we welcome all entrepreneurial spirits, innovators and pizza lovers. We continue to build a culture that reflects our corporate values of People First and Everyone Belongs

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and creates a competitive advantage in attracting and retaining talent. Across our restaurants, QC Centers and corporate hubs, Papa Johns team members are valued for their contributions, treated fairly, encouraged to share their feedback and ideas, provided the tools needed to ensure their safety and total wellness and given ample opportunities to grow in their careers.

We embed policies and practices that ensure fairness and build trust, and encourage behaviors across the organization that foster belonging and increase employee engagement, including grant-making through the Papa John’s Foundation to national and local nonprofit partners, hosting our annual Week of Service and leveraging our global inclusion resource groups with leaders engaging across the organization.

Talent Attraction, Retention and Development

Creating a culture of connectedness and belonging that supports and values team members is important to attracting and retaining talented, dedicated employees and bringing more innovative thinking and better ideas and solutions to our business. To meet job candidates where they live, and gain a deeper understanding of their personal, educational and professional goals, we sponsor and attend job fairs, scholarship programs and university and professional organization events and offer our team members hiring and referral bonuses.

To help our team members succeed in their roles and to ensure consistent operational execution, we offer continuous training and development opportunities, including providing innovative tools and materials for the operational training and development of team members. Operations personnel complete our management training program and ongoing development programs, including multi-unit training, through which instruction is given on all aspects of our systems and operations. In addition, to further support our team members’ development, we established our Dough & Degrees program in 2019, which allows our team members to earn a college degree for free or at a reduced tuition in partnership with Purdue University Global and the University of Maryland Global Campus, among others. Employees working at least ten hours per week can obtain their High School Diplomas, learn English as a second language, and earn associate’s, bachelor’s and/or master’s degrees. We also offer a tuition reimbursement program that provides another opportunity for our team members to advance their careers.

Compensation and Benefits

One of our core values is People First. As such, we are committed to providing competitive pay and benefits to attract and retain talent, whether in our Domestic Company-owned restaurants, in our supply chain centers or in our restaurant support centers. We pay competitive wages to our front line team members in our Domestic Company-owned restaurants.

Papa Johns offers a comprehensive benefits package to eligible team members. We also make available to our team members several benefits like paid parental leave, adoption support, and health plans that are available to dependents, spouses, and domestic partners. We offer eligible team members a 401(k) plan, with a competitive Company matching component to encourage retirement savings.

In addition, Papa Johns offers wellness services to help team members manage and optimize their health and well-being. These no-cost programs include smoking cessation, diabetes and hypertension management, weight management, and mental health support through the Papa Johns employee assistance program for all part-time and full-time team members and their dependents. Papa Johns also makes available the “Papa Cares” program that provides restaurant support center team members an onsite health clinic that provides a wide range of primary care services for adults, adolescents and children.

Workplace Health and Safety

As part of the Company’s enterprise-wide safety and security management system, we are committed to strategically investing in advanced training, technology and people to ensure the highest level of protection for our customers and team members. All Papa Johns team members, from those at our restaurant support centers to those working in our warehouses and restaurants, undergo annual safety and security training designed to address the unique requirements of their roles. Our QC Centers and restaurant operations are evaluated through comprehensive annual risk assessments, as well as unannounced inspections conducted by our corporate safety and security teams.

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Industry and Competition

The United States Quick Service Restaurant pizza (“QSR Pizza”) industry is mature and highly competitive with respect to price, service, location, food quality, technology, customer loyalty programs and product innovation. The QSR Pizza industry is largely fragmented, and competitors include a few large national chains and many smaller regional chains, as well as a large number of local independent pizza operators, any of which can utilize a growing number of food delivery services. Some of our competitors have been in existence for longer periods than Papa Johns, have substantially greater resources than Papa Johns and can have higher levels of restaurant penetration, aggressive promotional campaigns and brand awareness in markets where we compete. Additionally, competition from delivery aggregators and other food delivery concepts has increased in recent years. For more information, see “Item 1A—Risk Factors—Industry and Macroeconomic Risks—Our profitability may suffer as a result of intense competition in the QSR Pizza industry.”

Internationally, the pizza delivery model is not as mature as the Domestic market and presents a growth opportunity for Papa Johns. We believe demand from international consumers will continue to increase as the demand for pizza delivery and carryout continues.

With respect to our franchise operating model, we compete with many franchisors of restaurants and other business concepts. There is active competition for management personnel, drivers and hourly team members, and a limited supply of attractive commercial real estate sites suitable for Papa Johns restaurants.

Supply Chain

In the United States, our 11 QC Centers produce dough and distribute substantially all key ingredients, including mozzarella, dough and pizza sauce, and other supplies, including food products, paper products, smallwares and cleaning supplies to Domestic Company-owned restaurants and franchised restaurants to ensure consistent food quality. Each Domestic franchisee is required to purchase pizza sauce and dough from our Domestic QC Centers, and purchases substantially all other food products from our QC Centers. We also have one QC Center in Canada that produces and distributes fresh dough and provides further support to our North American franchisees. In our International segment, we operate one International QC Center in the United Kingdom and other International QC Centers are operated by franchisees pursuant to license agreements or by other third parties. We are dependent on a sole supplier for all of our cheese made from mozzarella domestically and substantially all of our cheese internationally. We also depend on a sole source for our supply of garlic sauce and we source other key ingredients, including meat products, from a limited number of suppliers. For a discussion of the related risks, see “Item 1A—Risk Factors—Company Risks—Increase in ingredient and other operating costs, including those caused by weather, climate change and food safety, could adversely affect our results of operations,” “—Our dependence on a sole supplier or a limited number of suppliers for some ingredients and other supplies could result in disruptions to our business,” and “—Changes in purchasing practices by our Domestic franchisees, or prolonged disruptions in our QC Center operations, could harm our commissary business.”

Government Regulation

We, along with our franchisees, are subject to various federal, state, local and international laws affecting the operation of our respective businesses, including laws and regulations related to our marketing and advertising as well as the preparation and sale of food, food safety and menu labeling. Each Papa Johns restaurant is subject to licensing and regulation by a number of governmental authorities, which include zoning, health, safety, sanitation, building and fire agencies in the state or municipality in which the restaurant is located. Difficulties in obtaining, or the failure to obtain, required permits, licenses or approvals could delay or prevent the opening of a new restaurant in a particular area. Our QC Centers are licensed and subject to regulation by state and local health and fire codes, and the operation of our trucks is subject to federal and state transportation regulations. We are also subject to federal and state environmental regulations. In addition, our Domestic operations are subject to various federal, state and local laws governing such matters as minimum wage requirements, benefits, taxation, working conditions, citizenship requirements, and overtime.

We are subject to Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) regulation and various state laws regulating the offer and sale of franchises. The FTC requires us to furnish to prospective franchisees a franchise disclosure document containing prescribed information. Many states also regulate substantive aspects of the franchisor-franchisee relationship, including the requirement to register our franchise disclosure document. State laws governing the franchisor-franchisee relationship presently exist in a significant number of states, and bills have been, and may in the future, be introduced in Congress that,

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if enacted, would provide for federal regulation of certain aspects of the U.S. franchisor-franchisee relationship. State laws often limit, among other things, the duration and scope of non-competition provisions and the ability of a franchisor to terminate or refuse to renew a franchise. Some foreign countries also have disclosure requirements and other laws regulating franchising and the franchisor-franchisee relationship. National, state and local government regulations or initiatives, including health care legislation, “living wage,” or other current or proposed regulations, and increases in minimum wage rates affect Papa Johns as well as others within the restaurant industry. We are also subject to applicable laws in each international jurisdiction in which we operate.

Privacy and Data Protection

We are subject to privacy and data protection laws and regulations globally. The legal and regulatory landscape for privacy and data protection continues to evolve, and there has been an increase in attention given to privacy and data protection issues with the potential to impact our business. This includes recently enacted Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) regulations and existing breach notification laws and regulations in the United States and in other countries which require notification to individuals and government authorities of breaches involving certain categories of personal information. We also expect more states in the United States to enact data privacy laws and regulations in the future. Any changes in privacy and data protection laws or regulations could also adversely impact the way we use e-mail, text messages and other marketing techniques and could require changes to our marketing strategies. Similarly, emerging regulations and laws governing the use of artificial intelligence may adversely impact our use of these technologies. The security of our financial data, customer information and other personal information is a priority for us. We have a privacy policy posted on our website at www.papajohns.com. Information on our website is not incorporated by reference herein and is not a part of this Form 10-K.

Trademarks, Copyrights and Domain Names

We protect our intellectual property through a combination of patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets, foreign intellectual property laws, confidentiality agreements and other contractual provisions. We have also registered, and applied for the registration of, U.S. and international trademarks, service marks, domain names and copyrights. From time to time, we are made aware of the use by other persons in certain geographical areas of names and marks that are the same as or substantially similar to our marks. It is our policy to pursue registration of our marks whenever possible and to vigorously oppose any infringement of our marks.

We hold copyrights in authored works used in our business, including advertisements, packaging, training, website, and promotional materials. In addition, we have registered and maintain Internet domain names, including “papajohns.com,” and country code domains patterned as “papajohns.cc,” or a close variation thereof, with “.cc” representing a specific country code.

Environmental Matters

We are not aware of any federal, state, local or international environmental laws or regulations that we expect to materially affect our earnings or competitive position or result in material capital expenditures. However, we cannot predict the effect of possible future environment legislation or regulations on our operations. During 2025, we had no material environmental compliance-related capital expenditures, and no such material expenditures are anticipated in 2026.

Additional Information

All of our periodic and current reports filed with the SEC pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), are available, free of charge, through our website located at www.papajohns.com. These reports include our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and any amendments to those reports. These reports are available through our website as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file them with the SEC. We also make available free of charge on our website our Corporate Governance Guidelines, Board Committee Charters, and our Code of Ethics, which applies to Papa John’s directors, officers and employees. Printed copies of such documents are also available free of charge upon written request to Investor Relations, Papa John’s International, Inc., P.O. Box 99900, Louisville, KY 40269-0900. The SEC maintains an internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC, including us, at www.sec.gov.

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We routinely use our investor relations website, at ir.papajohns.com, as a primary channel for disclosing key information to our investors. We may use our website as a means of disclosing material, non-public information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. Accordingly, investors should monitor our investor relations website, in addition to following our press releases, filings with the SEC, public conference calls, presentations, and webcasts.

The references to our website addresses do not constitute incorporation by reference of the information contained on the websites, which should not be considered part of this Form 10-K.