Papa John's has opened its world's biggest restaurant in Guangzhou and the company plans to open 500 new restaurants in China in the coming five years.

Located at Grandview Mall, Guangzhou, the Papa John's pizza restaurant covers an area of 550 square meters with 220 seats. According to Papa John's, the company will open 120 new restaurants in 2008 and 26 of them have been in South China.

To accelerate the company's development in China and to narrow the gap with Pizza Hut, Papa John's uses a franchise business model to increase the number and scale of its restaurants in a short time. At present, 80% of Papa John's restaurants across the world are franchise restaurants. The company opened its first franchise restaurant in China in 2006. Among its 100 restaurants in the fifteen Chinese cities, 90% are franchise restaurants.

Papa John's is the world's third biggest pizza company and has more than 3200 chain restaurants around the world. Its first restaurant in China opened in Shanghai's Pudong area in 2003 and at present it owns 100 chain restaurants in China, which contribute 20% to the total sales of the company.