Though revenues for the pizza chain increased 6.1% to $256.3million from the second quarter 2006, the company also saw adomestic system-wide comparable sales decrease of 1.1% for therecent quarter. "It's been an interesting three months," said NigelTravis, president and CEO, during the call. "Consumer confidenceand spending have been under attack on several fronts. Commoditieshave increased in nearly every category. It all sounds like aperfect storm, but we've had a very strong quarter, and we're notsatisfied with the negative comparable sales results."

Even though sales were soft, the company still opened a net 46stores worldwide for the quarter, bringing the company's number ofstores to 3,090 restaurants in the US and 27 countries. "We'retrending in the right direction, we're comfortable we can sustainthis growth over time," Travis said. "In the future, the new unitopenings will tend to be weighted more toward international." Hesaid the company is looking to open new stores in the UnitedKingdom, El Salvador, Eastern Europe, Mexico City and China, with atotal international development pipeline of 800 restaurants by2016.

The company also did some buying in the second quarter,completing the acquisition of 13 franchises in Georgia for $7.4million, and on July 2 buying 31 franchises in Missouri and Kansasfor $10.2 million. Then on July 30, the company bought 11franchises in the Washington D.C. area in a joint venture withColonel's Limited LLC for $6.1 million. A few things set PapaJohn's apart from the other major chains, Travis said. For onething, the company uses fresh dough for their pizzas, as opposed tofrozen. Also, company has grown its online ordering systemexponentially since they were the first to use the technology in2001. "Since then, we expect to pass one billion online orders in2008," Travis said. Finally, the company has opened 23non-traditional facilities at Live Nation concert venues, a conceptthat mirrors the firm's venture with Six Flags amusement parks.