According to the company’s financial disclosures, although globally sales went up slightly in 2025, in North America company-owned restaurant sales fell 3% and franchised restaurant sales fell 2%.
The company said that it expects North America’s comparable sales to be down 2-4% in 2026.
Globally, there are 6,038 Papa John’s restaurants as of Dec. 28, 2025 in 50 different countries and territories, 3,523 of which were in North America.
CFO Ravi Thanawala said in a statement that although the “vast majority of our global restaurants” have done well, they identified 300 underperforming restaurants in North America that are “not meeting brand expectations or lack a clear path to sustainable financial improvement, as well as locations where we can effectively transfer sales to nearby restaurants.”
A spokesperson for the company said that they could not provide a specific list of restaurants slated for closure, but Thanawala said the locations are mainly franchise-owned, are over a decade old, earn less than $600,000 annually and don’t make enough money to cover their operating expenses.
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