The7Stars wins fast food brands media business

The7Stars has scooped the media planning and buying account for home delivery pizza company Papa John’s.

The previous incumbent on the business was M2M. The senior director of marketing EMEA for Papa John’s is Simon Wallis.

Papa John’s was founded in 1985 by chief executive John Schnatter and competes against companies such as Domino’s Pizza and Pizza Hut. It has 118 outlets in the UK.

Last month, it reported that fourth quarter revenues were down 1.5% on the same period in 2007 to $279.6m (£202.4m). However, consolidated revenues for 2008 rose 6.4% to $1.13bn (£818m), ahead of analysts’ expectations.

The7Stars, founded by former Carat executives, has had a strong start to the year with wins including the £10m William Hill account and the National Trust. However, it did lose the business of Zavvi when the retailer went into administration.

In a separate move, chief executive of Pizza Hut UK Alasdair Murdoch stepped down last week after three years in the role. He is being replaced by Jens Hofma, currently chief executive of KFC Germany and Holland.