Franchise Owner of 112 Restaurants Gives Managers Minority Stakes to Boost Retention

Wade Oney, who runs a franchise group that includes 96 Papa John’s locations among 112 total restaurants across three brands, is sharing ownership with his on-site leadership as a deliberate strategy to keep talent. Bam-Bam Pizza Inc., the company he leads, brings in roughly $160 million a year, and Oney has quietly moved to convert high-performing managers and supervisors into partial owners.

Oney’s rise in the pizza business began in the early 1980s as a store assistant at Domino’s. After more than a decade there, he joined Papa John’s and climbed to chief operating officer before stepping away from corporate work in 2000 to become a full-time franchisee. He scaled his holdings from a few dozen units to the current roster, focusing on operational control and local management development.

His signature initiative lets mid- and senior-level operators purchase minority shares in the restaurants they run. Today, about one-third to one-half of his leadership cadre holds such positions. Oney says giving people a financial interest alters how they approach the business, turning routine tasks into decisions made with the long term in mind.

Industry observers welcome the move as a pragmatic answer to chronic turnover in fast-casual chains. A franchise consultant familiar with similar programs told this reporter that shared ownership can raise retention and productivity, though it also introduces new issues around governance and capital structure that franchisors and franchisees must manage.

Employees have reported that even small equity stakes change their outlook on career paths and store performance, creating a clearer progression from hourly roles to managerial ownership. The arrangement also serves as an internal succession plan: when managers buy in, they’re likelier to stay and prepare to run larger operations.

Oney plans to keep expanding while refining the buy-in model, saying he expects it to remain a core part of how he grows the business. For him, passing along pieces of the company is both a reward and a tool for building a steadier, more invested leadership team.