Papa Aldos History

Papa Aldo’s, a pizza restaurant founded by John A Gundle in 1981, is credited with innovating the pizza restaurant industry by building the first commercially successful “take and bake” pizzeria. First opened in Hillsboro, Oregon, just west of Portland, Papa Aldos became a tremendous success in a short time. Gundle credits the idea of selling pre-baked pizza to his previous experience managing a traditional pizzeria; he noticed that 40% of his orders were takeout, and many of those customers complained that by the time they were able to eat the pizza, it was cold and soggy! He saw the opportunity to create pizza that customers could bake in their home oven, and quickly developed a recipe for bake-at-home crust.

Because Papa Aldo’s only sold pre-cooked pizza, or “take and bake”, their overhead was drastically lower than traditional pizzerias. With less equipment to maintain, and no need for expensive pizza ovens, Papa Aldo’s Pizza was able to operate in smaller buildings and had much lower startup costs than any other pizza restaurant during that time. Papa Aldo’s quickly became a golden opportunity for franchisees; by 1986, only four years after the first Papa Aldo’s opened, the business had grown to 40 units, with annual sales of 101,000 to 295,000 per unit.

By providing a great environment, and a departure from traditional pizza methods, Papa Aldo’s stood out among its competitors as a high-quality quick way to get a hand-made pizza. Papa Aldo’s was purchased by Terry Collins (owner of Murphy’s Pizza) in 1990, and in 1995 Papa Aldo’s and Murphy’s pizza were combined to create Papa Murphy’s Pizza, one of the most successful pizza franchises currently operating.