Papa Johns promoted Kurt Milburn to chief supply chain officer, according to a May 2 press release. He succeeds Shane Hutchins, who will retire after 26 years at the company.
In his new role, Milburn will oversee areas that include quality control center operations, supplier management and quality assurance, according to the release. He will also be reporting to interim CEO Ravi Thanawala and serve on the Papa Johns executive leadership team.
Milburn started with Papa Johns as VP of supply chain operations in 2022, according to his LinkedIn, and thereafter has gained experience in other areas such as engineering and operations support functions.
Prior to Papa Johns, Milburn served as SVP of supply chain operations at Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, a multinational lawn and garden company. He also held engineering and supply chain management positions at General Electric and General Motors.
Milburn “brings deep expertise in supply chain and engineering from large, complex organizations and strong knowledge of our organization having led Papa Johns Food Service operations over the last two years,” Thanawala said. “I look forward to his leadership as we continue to evolve our supply chain to meet the demands of our growing business.”
The announcement comes after Papa Johns outlined plans to improve productivity within its supply chain during the ICR conference earlier this year. The company is working on driving profits up and said in a Q4 earnings call that “incremental volume driven by increased marketing and additional development will reduce the shared supply chain costs across the system.”
