Drake Food Service consolidates its international expansion with the opening of its 400th restaurant worldwide, thereby strengthening its position as the world's leading largest Papa John's franchisee internationally. With this new opening, located in Guatemalathe company reaches its restaurant number 96 in Central America. The location is a major milestone, both in this region and globally for DFSI.
"We are very proud of this new opening, not only because it allows us to get closer to our customers with our Better Ingredients, Better Pizza proposition, but also because we are proud to support the growth of the communities where we operate, while consolidating the expansion of Papa John's around the world," he said. Ignacio Astete, CEO of DFSI.
DFSI is currently present in 7 countries and plans to double its presence.
In this respect, DFSI has recently signed a agreement with Papa John's International for the opening of new restaurants in Latin America and Europe. As part of the agreement, DFSI will open 50 new restaurants in the UK over the next few years four yearswhere it recently acquired more than 60 Papa John's restaurants in London, making it the brand's largest franchise in the country.
Under the terms of this expanded partnership, DFSI will operate over 700 Papa John's restaurants in total by 2025.This ambitious growth project is not only coming from the Papa John's Franchise, Drake Food Service launched in 2020 a hamburger joint called Just Burger in Chile where they will reach January 2022 with 10 premises and are committed to boosting its development by achieving 100 shops in 2025 between Chile and other countries.
The Iberian market
Spain and Portugal "will play a key role in surpassing 700 restaurants by 2025 internationally", a goal they will achieve by seeking "a deep connection with the customer", he said. Javier González, COO of DFSI and director of Papa John's for Iberia.
It currently has 85 restaurants in Spain and Portugal, 7 of them sub-franchisees. Recently, it has signed an agreement through which the restaurant chain, together with a QSR Northwill open 25 restaurants in the north of Spain in the coming years. This is its largest expansion project based on sub-franchises since 2020.