Papa Johns to keep ownership of Louisville campus for corporate hub along with 600 jobs

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Papa Johns said it will keep its corporate hub and 600 employees at its Louisville campus.

The company had announced plans in Feb. to sell its campus in eastern Jefferson County, but on Thursday, it announced plans to maintain ownership of the property that will be home to the Corporate Hub and the Papa Johns Quality Control Center. It currently employs about 550 people.

The company said it sold its Preferred Marketing Solutions subsidiary to 1Vision, which will continue to operate on campus with its 50 team members.

"Louisville has been home to Papa Johns for almost 40 years, and we remain committed to investing in this community,” said Papa John's CEO Rob Lynch in a release.

Lynch said the Papa Johns executives for IT, supply chain and legal departments will remain in Louisville.

"A commitment like this from a national and international company, the size of Papa Johns to recommit to this market and the city that made it," Greater Louisville Inc. COO Rebecca Wood said. "It's just something that that shows the strength and the confidence that this company has in the city in the greater Louisville region."

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear released a statement praising Papa Johns as a leading corporate citizen and welcoming the new company to Louisville.

"Today, we welcome 1Vision and we look forward to working with Papa Johns as they build upon their long-standing commitment to Kentucky – from employing thousands of people across the state to helping make Kentucky an even better place to live and work," Beshear said.

Papa Johns International said in Feb. 2023 that it was listing its corporate office in the eastern Jefferson County suburbs for sale about two years following the company’s decision to move many corporate functions to a new headquarters in Atlanta.

The corporate campus, built in the late 1990s at a cost of $30 million, is a monument to the era when Papa Johns was ascendant as a national player in the franchise pizza business. The main three-story office building is set at the end of the highly manicured Papa Johns Boulevard off Bluegrass Parkway.

Papa Johns founder John Schnatter was known to sometimes commute to the corporate office via helicopter from his home a few miles away in Louisville's Anchorage neighborhood.

Louisville’s centrality to Papa Johns has been on the wane since 2018, when the company cut ties with Schnatter.

After a recording of Schnatter using racial language on a conference call was leaked, he apologized and later said his remarks were taken out of context.

Schnatter held about 30% of Papa Johns stock in 2018, but he liquidated his stake following his ouster. Schnatter's exit from the scene left few with any Louisville ties at the top of the company.

In 2020, Papa Johns announced "a new global headquarters" in Atlanta to house corporate functions such as human resources, menu innovation, development and communications.

The move was a blow to Louisville, where Papa Johns grew from scratch into one of the nation’s largest pizza chains.

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