A restaurant industry veteran, Tapan Vaidya is currently the CEO of PJP Investments Group, owner-operators of Papa John’s across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. With 35+ years of experience across India & the Middle East, Tapan has been associated with the development of hundreds of restaurants across these markets with brands including Papa John’s, Chili’s, Burger King, Pizza Hut, and Outback Steakhouse. Tapan also founded Talli Turmeric® – a hugely popular polished casual dining brand serving authentic Indian food, located in Mumbai, India.
His newest ambition? To bring Papa John’s to India.
How Menu Innovation and Technology are Paving the Way to Success for Papa John’s
In an exclusive conversation with The Restaurant Times, Mr. Tapan Vaidya, CEO of PJP Investment Group, discusses the new menu innovations and proactive steps taken by the group to enrich their customer experience.
#1: Adapting The Menu To Ongoing Customer Trends
As far as their “award-winning vegan” menu is concerned, Papa John’s keeps introducing new additions to it. The most recent of them were BBQ Vegan ‘NoChicken’ pizza, Vegan ‘NoChicken’ Mexican Ole pizza, Vegan ‘NoChicken’ Superpapa pizza, Vegan Cheese Sticks, and plant-based nuggets.
The brand has also partnered with Netherlands-based The Vegetarian Butcher, which is part of the Unilever group, to recreate the texture and taste of traditional meat products amid the rising demand for alternative proteins.
Going by the data, the plant-based food market in the MENA region is expected to reach nearly $8–9 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of over 10%. Consumer adoption has accelerated rapidly as well. A Toluna survey found that 87% of consumers in the UAE and 81% in Saudi Arabia have already tried plant-based food and beverages, driven largely by growing health awareness, sustainability concerns, and changing dietary preferences.
Papa John’s positioned its vegan launches under the campaign “Love Pizza, Love the Planet,” tying the menu innovation to both environmental and ethical considerations. According to Tapan Vaidya, the response to this campaign outperformed their initial expectations in every way possible.
And that same philosophy is now shaping Papa John’s vision to enter newer markets.
As PJP prepares to enter India, Tapan has spoken about the importance of tailoring the product to local tastes. As he told Caterer Middle East, “We worked with the brand in India to listen to the consumers, understood what works for them – spice tolerance levels, for example, are rather different for India than say, USA or even UAE for that matter.”
The Indian menu will feature a variety of vegetarian options, staying true to Papa John’s brand promise of ‘Better Ingredients, Better Pizza’ while meeting local preferences.
#2: Focusing on Customer Retention
Papa John’s was one of the first brands to establish their own website, online ordering system, and mobile app, long before the pandemic. The brand has had a solid rewards program known as ‘Papa Rewards’ that was not only rewarding for customers but also dynamic. The program enabled the marketing team to closely track all customer movements so as to have a better understanding of which customers are spending how much, on exactly what items.
One of the most interesting things this program highlighted was how the number of customers downloads the Papa John’s app but keeps missing the actual purchase for weeks.
With this information, they could target a specific group of customers and entice them with more rewards, such as Papa points that can be used within a stipulated time frame. This way, they could not only acquire customers directly but also maintain an ongoing relationship and generate loyalty from them.
The best part is that Tapan Vaidya focuses and even urges all his employees to “focus on ROC, not on ROI.” “ROC is return on customer,” he explains. “We tell our teams to focus on every transaction, every order, every customer, and treat them with such care that the customer will always come back. Then return on investment will take care of itself.”
#3: Using Technology to Streamline Restaurant Operations
The COVID-19 pandemic is said to have accelerated the shift to digitalization by 5 years. As a result, the technological and investment shifts that were forecasted to take place in the F&B industry much later are already happening today.
During the first quarter of 2020, for the record, Papa John’s received 37% of orders through digital channels, with 63% still coming via conventional channels such as call centers and on-premise orders. During the second quarter, with lockdown restrictions in effect, it turned the other way around, with the brand receiving 37% orders through the offline medium and 63% orders via digital.
Even after such restrictions had eased in the UAE, Papa John’s continues to receive at least 58% orders via digital mediums, and Mr. Tapan believes that the number would only keep on increasing.
If you look at the overall market, as per a recent study by Infinium Global Research, the MENA online food delivery market was valued at $7.3 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach nearly $27.05 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 17.79% between 2023 and 2030.
This growth can be attributed to certain factors, such as:
- Rising smartphone penetration
- Increasing urbanization
- Changing consumer dining habits, and
- Growing demand for convenience-led ordering experiences.
Countries like the UAE, particularly Dubai and Abu Dhabi, currently hold the region’s largest market share due to high internet adoption and a mature delivery ecosystem dominated by platforms such as Talabat and Uber Eats. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, is emerging as the fastest-growing online food delivery market in the region, fueled by its young consumer base and rapidly accelerating digital adoption.
For brands like Papa John’s, this fundamentally changes how the restaurant acquires, retains, and understands customers.
From the time an order is taken to the time it is delivered, every step here is tracked and measured using technology. Along with this, the brand leverages apps like Zenput to help them streamline opening their restaurant daily with a day-to-day checklist. To ensure the safety of employees, they use Bluetooth thermometers and real-time image-based audits that are fully backed by robust technology.
When asked about what tech advancements he’d like to see in the industry going forward, Tapan shares: “Advancements which make life easier for restaurant teams, not tech for the sake of tech, or to replace humans, because humans come with skill-sets AI can’t match!”
Eyeing The Next Scale: India Expansion
Lately, PJP Investments Group has been making headlines for scaling Papa John’s to more than 100 restaurants across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. But its biggest move yet is to expand to India.
The group has signed an agreement with Papa John’s International to open 650 new restaurants across India by 2033, with the first store set to open in Bengaluru. “Our plan is to build out South India first before heading North, West, and East. Bangalore will be our first stop, followed by Hyderabad and Chennai,” Tapan told Caterer Middle East.
The UAE, it turns out, was a proving ground. “The UAE has been our home market, and our growth has been meteoric in the last four years,” said Tapan. “Our team’s excellent execution of the Papa John’s brand in the UAE, KSA, and Jordan provides for a perfect background platform to launch this massive expansion into India.”
India, meanwhile, has been on Tapan’s radar for years. He believes the country’s rising middle class, growing disposable incomes, and rapidly evolving food culture make it one of the most exciting opportunities for QSR to tap into today. The deal itself reportedly took over 15 months of planning, consumer research, and localization before being finalized.
With plans to operate nearly 1,000 Papa John’s restaurants within the next decade across all its markets, PJP Investments Group is moving decisively from a regional operator to a truly continental force with Tapan Vaidya firmly at the helm.
As he once put it, when asked where Papa John’s was headed: “Shoot for a century [We are at 93 already] and gallop towards the next!”
It looks like that century has now been well and truly scored, and the next innings is already underway.
