With visions of a vast pizza empire dancing in his head, Chuck Adkins put his Louisville law practice on hold and moved to Moscow in early 2003.
But as he struggled through the frigid winter in a 500-square-foot apartment, Adkins learned that it wasn’t going to be easy opening the first Papa John’s restaurant in Russia.
Many of his delivery drivers, for example, didn’t own vehicles. The solution: Buy a fleet of locally made Lada hatchbacks and sedans and build a repair shop to keep them running.
Then there was the question of lining up vendors to supply the mozzarella cheese, pizza boxes, dough and countless other items he would need to open the restaurant. With the closest Papa John’s commissary in England, Adkins set about creating his own vendor network, a task that contributed to the 20,000 miles he said he logged on Moscow’s roads during his first year in the country.
“If I’d known how difficult it would be, I wouldn’t have attempted it,” Adkins said in a recent interview, back in Louisville in his fourth-floor downtown law office.
But Adkins and his investment partners — including former University of Kentucky athletic director Larry Ivy — stuck it out. Today they oversee seven Papa John’s stores that they expect to mushroom to as many as 18 by the end of next year.
As the master franchisee for Russia, Adkins and his partners are a key part of a long-term growth strategy at Louisville-based Papa John’s International, which wants to open at least 800 restaurants abroad in the next decade. Russia is one of six countries where most of that growth is expected. The others: China, India, Mexico, South Korea and Great Britain.
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