The pizza company, famous for its ‘Better Ingredients. Better Pizza’ commitment, will be making its presence felt at the British & International Franchise Exhibition at Olympia as it showcases its plans to open more than 25 new stores in 2008.

Managing director Ian Saunders said: “This year has got off to a flyer, with the opening of our one hundredth store in January, quickly followed by our first in Manchester. We already have a further 14 stores scheduled to open by June 2008 - a rate of one a week -  which puts us well on our way to reaching our target of 25 for the year.

“The locations we are looking to attract new franchisees and open new stores into include Manchester and the M62 corridor, Leeds, Oxford, London inside the M25, Cambridge, Chester, and Bristol, while further opportunities exist within the East and West Midlands,” he added.

Established in the USA in 1984 Papa John’s now operates more than 3,000 restaurants in 29 markets around the world.