Papa Johns-The Big Cheese

Papa Johns

Louisville, Ky.

It sounds like a pizza lover's dream.

In addition to the standing dollar-a-slice deal available to Papa Johns employees from the on-site pizzeria at its corporate headquarters, employees can also enjoy 50 percent off all other Papa Johns pizza purchases.

Though this undoubtedly adds a few pounds to workers' waistlines, the pizza chain giant has been adding much more than this lately.

This month, Papa Johns' 85-employee in-plant will add a new 11,000-lb., 36˝, four-color Process King press to help it gain more control over the company's printing and marketing needs.

Jack Klausing, director of printing for Papa Johns Print Services, says because of the intensely competitive and fast-paced nature of the pizza business, it's crucial for the in-plant to satisfy the printing needs of its franchisees as quickly as possible.

"We're averaging six and a half to seven million free-standing inserts (FSIs) a week," explains Klausing. "So to accommodate that volume and provide more control over quality, we decided to buy a press and bring the operation in-house."

Because there are so many variables inherent in the production of FSIs—like individualized store addresses, phone numbers and special offers—many in-plants might outsource the work. Yet Klausing says outsourcing offers neither the speed nor control the company needs.

"We partnered with another printer out of Chicago [Berlin Industries] and they were doing it for us, but now the volume has gotten so it just makes sense for us to bring it in," recounts Ken Beauchamp, director of print production at Papa Johns Print Services. "When you've got six million pieces a week and you may have 40, 50, 60 different versions, it gets quite intricate."

A Perfect Fit

Another reason the in-plant bought the new Process King press, says Mike Faulkenberg, pressroom manager at Papa Johns Print Services, is because of its versatility. It will allow the in-plant to individualize inserts for each of its franchisees. It also has an excellent ability to lock in color and stay consistent over long runs.

Faulkenberg says that after spending eight months comparing presses side by side and examining each one down to the most minute detail, the King press triumphed handily.

"Finally, we went up to Chicago [for Graph Expo] and called on a bunch of vendors, and when we got down to the nuts and bolts, and metal for metal, the King was, by far, the winner," declares Faulkenberg. "There's not too many printers that can actually go out and buy a press around the exact needs of the work they produce."

Another Topping

Nevertheless, the in-plant's new press isn't the only thing adding weight to its prodigious array of equipment.

To enable its 85 print services employees—including 14 in the prepress area—to keep up with a demanding workload and meet tight deadlines, the company purchased two new imagesetters from Fuji Photo Film USA in March: a Fujifilm Sumo Luxel F-9000 and an FC-505.

"We looked at many different output devices and were undecided, until we saw the Fujifilm Sumo," reports Angela Dooley, prepress manager. "The Sumo seemed the most user-friendly and its speed was incredible. We purchased both the Fuji Sumo and the Fuji FC-5055 to bolster our prepress productivity. We're now using the FC-5055 primarily for polyester plates, which enabled us to meet our goal of reducing turnaround times from two weeks to 24 hours after the customer signs off on the proof."

The Fujifilm Sumo Luxel F9000 is a large-format, internal-drum recorder, featuring multi-laser technology. The Sumo can produce 29 eight-up punched flats per hour at 2,438 dpi using two lasers. FC-5055 imagesetters boast speeds up to 72˝ per minute at 1,000 dpi.

Variety Is The Spice Of Life

Papa Johns Print Services produces a variety of printed products annually, averaging 2,500 orders per month for the pizza giant's 2,645 franchise and corporate restaurants in 48 states nationally and eight countries.

In addition to the large volume of FSIs, print products cooked up at the in-plant range from business cards to six-color catalogs. Within any given day, the printing power of Papa Johns is producing menus, brochures, catalogs and an assortment of corporate collateral for Papa John's, as well as for a variety of commercial accounts, including General Electric.

Though the in-plant doesn't print its own pizza boxes, due to the relatively low volume, it does print approximately 175 million box toppers and 55 million door hangers annually for Papa Johns restaurants. It also prints stationery, Rolodex cards, table tents and training materials. For the large slice of commercial accounts it serves, customer orders include annual reports, church bulletins, product literature, point-of-purchase displays, posters and calendars.

Although the operation seems to have all the business it can handle, Klausing says the shop is always looking for ways to improve.

"The pizza market and the printing market might seem quite far apart, but a lot of times we have to react and react quickly to different things going on in the world of pizza," he says. "If we have the proper equipment in-house then we can respond much more quickly, and in doing that it'll help with marketing the Papa Johns product."

by Allan Martin Kemler