Papa John’s International, Inc. (NASDAQ: PZZA) today announced that its Board of Directors has approved an extension of the existing $225 million authorization for the repurchase of the Company’s common stock through December 30, 2001. The repurchase program was previously set to expire on December 31, 2000. The authorization includes both open market purchases as well as private transactions.

The Company announced that to date it has repurchased approximately $188 million of its common stock under the repurchase program. After such repurchases, the Company has approximately 23 million shares of common stock outstanding on a fully diluted basis.

At December 21, 2000, there were 2,562 Papa John’s restaurants (627 company-owned and 1,935 franchised) operating in 49 states and ten international markets. Papa John’s also owns or franchises 205 Perfect Pizza restaurants (7 company-owned and 198 franchised) in the United Kingdom. For more information about the Company, visit Papa John’s at www.papajohns.com.