John Schnatter, founder of Papa John's Pizza, will be giving away 100 free pizzas in West Wickham to celebrate the opening of the UK company's new £5m dough plant.

Schnatter, who founded Papa John's in 1984 and has grown the chain into the world's third-largest pizza company, will be visiting Papa John's West Wickham store in Glebe Way on Thursday, August 26. He will be giving away 100 free pizzas at 12noon.

John said: "I'm looking forward to giving some of our 100 per cent fresh dough pizzas to the people of West Wickham to celebrate the opening of our new dough plant in Milton Keynes.

"We've opened the facility because the UK is a key international growth area for Papa John's, and is setting the benchmark in terms of quality and expansion for other countries across the world.

"I founded the company on our 'Better Ingredients. Better Pizza' brand promise and it's this commitment to quality that is proving so successful here in the UK."

Papa John's has nearly 140 restaurants across the UK. The company has achieved 18 consecutive quarters of comparative sales growth, with a two-year sales growth of 23.3 per cent.