In a little over three decades, Nadeem Bajwa went from being a college student struggling to pay the bills to the owner of a fast food empire, owning 270 Papa John’s locations in North America.
The 58-year-old told CNBC that he immigrated to the U.S. in 1991 from Pakistan. He attended a college in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and worked side hustles to make ends meet. One of his side jobs was delivering pizza for a local Papa John’s chain, making $4.25 an hour. His first summer in the U.S., he would wash dishes during breakfast time, deliver pizzas for Papa John’s in the afternoon, and then work at Taco Bell at night.
“I just started delivering for Papa John’s when they came in town, and from there, just started loving it, and tips were good, so that helped,” Bajwa told CNBC.
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When Bajwa graduated from college in 1996, he had already worked his way up the ranks at Papa John’s, going from delivery driver to area manager. He submitted applications to corporate roles at other companies, but found that he couldn’t get a job that would pay more than what he was making at Papa John’s. He decided to stick with the pizza shop for that reason.
Bajwa’s experience running a Papa John’s store helped when he eventually decided to become a franchisee and open his own location. In 2002, he opened his own Papa John’s restaurant in East Liverpool, Ohio, saving money on startup expenses by doing most of the labor himself.
The store took $150,000 to build out and was an instant success, with more customers showing up than expected. However, the crew was undertrained and overwhelmed, and half of them walked out that first day alone.
“[At first] it was chaos,” Bajwa told CNBC. “I learned how important it is to be ready before [opening].”
That one restaurant led to another, then another. Bajwa’s goal now is to open 500 Papa John’s locations in the coming years.
Papa John’s, which was founded in 1985, has over 3,000 locations in the U.S. It usually takes an initial investment of at least $272,915 to get a Papa John’s restaurant off the ground.
In a little over three decades, Nadeem Bajwa went from being a college student struggling to pay the bills to the owner of a fast food empire, owning 270 Papa John’s locations in North America.
The 58-year-old told CNBC that he immigrated to the U.S. in 1991 from Pakistan. He attended a college in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and worked side hustles to make ends meet. One of his side jobs was delivering pizza for a local Papa John’s chain, making $4.25 an hour. His first summer in the U.S., he would wash dishes during breakfast time, deliver pizzas for Papa John’s in the afternoon, and then work at Taco Bell at night.
“I just started delivering for Papa John’s when they came in town, and from there, just started loving it, and tips were good, so that helped,” Bajwa told CNBC.
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