Russian Papa John's chain to split from U.S. group - paper

MOSCOW. March 14 (Interfax) - The Papa John's pizza restaurant chain in Russian plans to develop independently of U.S. company Papa John's International, national daily Kommersant said on Tuesday, citing a source.

The owner of the master franchise of the chain in Russia and the Papa John's global office have been unable to decide since the end of last year on how the company can leave the Russian market, a restaurant industry source told the paper. The business will probably not be sold and the chain will continue to be managed by the current team led by American Christopher Wynne, the source said.

The Russian owner of the master franchise plans to change the depiction, story and concept of the brand, the source said. The Papa John's logo on the Russian website has already changed. Moscow-based Komo LLC replaced Cyprus-based PJ Western's subsidiary 4 Papas LLC as the operator of the chain's domain names at the end of 2022, the SPARK-Interfax system showed. Karina Selezneva is listed as Komo's owner in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.