Papa John’s set to be tale of success in Canterbury
11 October 2016: Leading pizza franchise, Papa John’s, has announced the opening of its latest franchised store on Sturry Road in Canterbury. Set to be a ‘tale of success’, the store has already exceeded initial sales expectations for franchisee Gurinder Atwal, who also runs five other Papa John’s in Kent.
Gurinder Atwal explains: “The original plan was to open-up in Canterbury six years ago. To cut a long story short, we have needed to be careful to find the perfect location and it has taken time to secure planning in this beautiful and historic city,” confirms Gurinder Atwal. “Canterbury has a huge university population and we are now based near the student accommodation so this opening represents an exciting prospect for the expansion of our portfolio.
Gurinder who previously worked in the city as a Data Analyst for RBS bank first moved into the fast food industry with his brother Sukdev, opening fish & chip shops. However, they took the decision to target to a younger and more sustainable market through buying a Papa John’s franchise in 2010 and have never looked back.
“To ensure we understood the daily challenges our staff faced, we actually worked in a Papa John’s store for six months prior to our first store opening,” confirms Gurinder. “This really helped us learn the trade from the ground-floor up and empathise with our employees and customers better. We understand that training and staff motivation ensures excellent customer service and the high quality of our product is maintained.”
It’s a happy ending to this tale and to-date, 35 local staff have been trained and employed at the new Canterbury Papa John’s.
