American pizza restaurant chain Papa Johns has signed a franchise agreement with Rana Group Ltd to open 20 new Papa Johns restaurants opening across Northern Ireland over the next decade.
Rana Group, which already operates 25 Papa Johns restaurants in the UK, is owned by Rana Abhol. He has years of experience in the pizza industry in Northern Ireland and joined Papa Johns in June 2017. The Rana Group has a big focus on strong customer experience, local recruitment and leveraging Papa Johns’ quality ingredients.
The first of the 20 new restaurants opened on 5 December in Ballymena and a second store will be announced by March 2026. Each site is expected to create between 15 and 20 jobs. Papa John’s anticipates that up to 400 local jobs will be created by the end of the decade.
Papa Johns, which was founded in Jeffersonville, Indiana, in 1984, has around 450 restaurants across the UK. The expansion plans mark a comeback for the brand after announcements earlier in the year of the closure of 74 restaurants in the UK following growing pre-tax losses and falling turnover in 2024.
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In November 2025, however, Papa Johns reported its strongest quarter since Covid, with revenue at company-owned UK restaurants growing to £800,000.
Chris Phylactou, Managing Director U.K. & Europe at Papa Johns, said: “This new agreement is an exciting milestone for Papa Johns, reinforcing our momentum and long-term vision for sustainably growing in the UK.
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“We are proud to bring our Better Ingredients, Better Pizza ethos to more communities in Northern Ireland and the UK, offering our customers even more opportunities to enjoy the Papa Johns experience. This expansion will create hundreds of local jobs and allow us to play a meaningful role in the communities we serve – not just as a consumer brand, but as a committed partner in local growth and development.”
Almost all Papa Johns’ UK restaurants are franchises, with figures reported in mid-2025 indicating that 444 of its 457 UK restaurants were run by franchisees.
