The Wells County Chamber of Commerce staff and members of the Chamber officially welcomed Papa John’s Pizza to town. Papa John’s is located at 1980 North Main Street in Bluffton.
Since the soft opening, the community has shown the support of the franchise with record crowds. “Pizza with better ingredients is coming to Bluffton,” said Nadeem Bajwa, Chief Executive Officer. “We have arrived. We are honored. We are blessed. We are humbled to be here and ready to serve the community. The welcome we have received has been great and probably one of our best openings.”
Bajwa currently owns nearly 200 stores in 11 different states spanning from Missouri to Arizona. “Our home base is the Midwest as the majority of our stores are here in Indiana,” explained Bajwa. “I started working for Papa John’s in the 1990s delivering pizzas while I was going to college at Indiana Tech. I became a franchise owner in 2002 in East Liverpool, Ohio and continued to grow. Today, we are one of the largest franchises. All we need are good leaders, love of the brand, and a passion to win.”
Justin Adams, Senior Director of Operations, started working for Bajwa 25 years ago. “I was hired as a phone order taker and we both worked our way up,” said Adams. “I now oversee Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio with our main office in Fort Wayne.”
“I don’t call this the pizza business, I call it the people business and creating a culture,” Bajwa stated. “I’ve done the work myself and now as long as I have a team like Justin carrying out the legacy, it is a blessing to have good people in place. People ask me about the key to success and I tell them you don’t have to be the smartest, but just smart enough to have smart and good people around you. They will take you to the next level.”
Both Bajwa and Adams said they are here to be a part of the community and be involved. “Having people like Justin in the field is important to engage with the community whether it is board involvement or helping with fundraisers, we want to support” explained Bajwa.
Papa John’s Pizza specializes in pizza, chicken wings, boneless breadsticks, jalapeno bites, Oreo desserts, and cheesesticks. “We do offer a lot of products and people are welcome to go to the website to see the full menu,” said Adams.
“We are really excited to be here in the community, and we are currently working on a drive-thru,” said Adams. “This location has the latest and newest concepts because we plan to be here for a very long time. We ask that the community be patient with us while we work through our systems to serve you the best that we can.”
