Papa John’s is looking to shake things up a bit and they are doing so with former CEO of Arby’s Rob Lynch. Their reasoning is the remarkable work that Lynch has done with turning Arbys back into a viable brand to consumers who have changing tastes. Despite changing tastes the appeal to many is that Rob Lynch has held steady with his vision for Arby’s and helped bring back the company’s success.

Lynch replaces Steve Ritchie who started out as an employee answering the phone in 1996. He made six dollars an hour at the time. He quickly moved up the ranks to owning his own Papa Johns and then became the CEO of the company for 18 months. Thankfully during Ritchie’s time, he was able to help stabilize the company. Jeff Smith, the chairman of the board for Papa John’s, talks about how much he appreciates Ritchie’s time with the company and looks forward to even more success with Rob Lynch.

The first step of the new CEO of Papa John’s is to listen to what others want from the long-standing pizza company. The next goal is to get back to what Papa John’s is really about- the variety of toppings and fresh ingredients available to the consumer. This will add to marketing that has helped keep Papa John’s as fourth in the market behind many other well-known pizza places such as Little Ceasers and Dominos. Part of this marketing includes commercials featuring Sqauille O’Neal as their brand ambassador. The game plan with this is to help people see it’s really about the pizza.

Lynch plans to keep the leadership team intact and the initial reaction to the announcement of him coming on board was well-received as stocks rose 9.5%. He will be replaced at Arby’s by their chief marketing officer Jim Taylor.