Hillsboro, Petaluma and a merger.

Papa Murphy’s is a merged name, and both halves were once separate businesses. The International Directory of Company Histories, in its entry on Papa Murphy’s International reproduced by FundingUniverse, records that Papa Aldo’s Pizza was established in Hillsboro, Oregon, in 1981, and that Murphy’s Pizza began in Petaluma, California, in 1984. English Wikipedia gives the same dates and places.

The directory names Murphy’s founder as Robert Graham, who owned a convenience store in Petaluma and noticed that one of his suppliers was selling uncooked pizzas. According to the directory, which describes the episode as company lore, Graham set out to develop a dough that could be baked in an ordinary home oven, then opened several Murphy’s Pizza outlets.

The man who joined the two chains was Terry Collins, a fast-food executive who had worked at Burger Chef and PepsiCo. The directory says he met Graham in 1988 and bought a controlling interest in the small Murphy’s chain, then in 1990 bought the Papa Aldo’s chain as well. For several years he ran the two separately, with Papa Aldo’s adopting the Murphy’s recipe.

After testing a single brand in 1994, Collins merged the Papa Aldo’s and Murphy’s stores in 1995 to create Papa Murphy’s International, Inc., the directory records, and hired Thomas Morrell, a Wendy’s veteran, as president. The new name kept a piece of each predecessor: the “Papa” of Papa Aldo’s and the “Murphy’s” of the Petaluma chain. Wikipedia, which also credits Collins with acquiring and consolidating both chains, says the chain was incorporated under that name and that the company merged with PMI Holdings in 2004.

The business settled in the Pacific Northwest. Nation’s Restaurant News described the company in 2019 as Vancouver, Washington-based, and MTY Food Group said that year that the Papa Murphy’s support centre would remain in Vancouver.

Private equity, Nasdaq and MTY.

The company changed hands several times after the merger. Wikipedia records that the chain was sold in 2010 to Lee Equity Partners of New York, and that Lee Equity later took it to the stock market: Papa Murphy’s was added to the Nasdaq on 2 May 2014 under the ticker FRSH. Wikipedia also says the company announced in 2016 that it would run a national advertising campaign in 2017.

In 2019 the chain moved to Canadian ownership. Nation’s Restaurant News reported on 23 May 2019 that the Montreal-based franchisor MTY Food Group had completed its acquisition of Papa Murphy’s Holdings, which had been announced in April, and that Papa Murphy’s shares had stopped trading on Nasdaq. The publication noted that Papa Murphy’s joined an MTY portfolio that included TCBY Frozen Yogurt, Cold Stone Creamery, Baja Fresh and Planet Smoothie. Verdict Food Service reported the same month that Papa Murphy’s would operate as an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of MTY from its existing support centre in Vancouver, Washington.

MTY Food Group has owned Papa Murphy’s since 2019, and the brand still appears among the banners on MTY’s corporate website, alongside Cold Stone Creamery, Thaï Express and Mucho Burrito. MTY’s own announcement of the closing, dated 23 May 2019, described Papa Murphy’s as an indirect wholly owned subsidiary.

The format that defines the company has stayed constant through each owner. The International Directory of Company Histories describes how the stores were laid out for a take-and-bake model: modest storefronts, often in suburban strip malls, with no ovens and little seating, since customers bake the pizza at home. Wikipedia makes the same point, saying the pizzas are made in the store but not baked there, and that orders can be placed in person, online or by phone, with some stores adding a drive-through window for pick-up.

Design and documentation.

A pizza chain’s identity is carried by a handful of everyday objects more than by any single advert: the box that leaves the counter, the sign above the door, the shape of the building itself and, for some names, a character who stands in for the company. Each of these is a surface that the brand reaches customers through, often far from any office where the identity was drawn.

The box is the piece most people handle. It travels home, sits on a table and is printed in large numbers, so its lid tends to carry the name, a colour scheme and sometimes a slogan or illustration. Storefront signs do similar work at street level, in shopping centres and in food courts, where a name and a colour have to be read quickly and from a distance.

Buildings and mascots add a further layer. A distinctive roofline, an interior theme or a costumed figure can become part of how a chain is recognised, and those elements may be kept, revised or dropped as owners change. Each guide that follows records who started the chain, who has owned it over time and how its name, signs and marks have been presented, separating what independent sources report from what the company says about itself.

A name built from two others, and a pizza that travels raw.

At Papa Murphy’s the product leaves the shop unbaked. The International Directory of Company Histories describes the routine behind the counter: dough spread on specially made disposable trays, toppings added while the customer watches from the other side of a sneeze guard, and the finished pizza wrapped in plastic with a label of baking instructions applied before it goes home.

The company has given the format its own wording. Verdict Food Service referred in 2019 to the chain’s “Take ‘n’ Bake” offer, the phrase it uses for pizzas that customers bake themselves, sold alongside grab-and-go items such as salads, sides and desserts.

The shops themselves are part of the picture. The directory describes small storefront units in suburban strip malls, without ovens or much seating, where staff prepare dough, sauce and toppings each day and customers watch their pizza being assembled at the counter.

The name itself carries the company’s history. “Papa” comes from Papa Aldo’s, the Oregon chain, and “Murphy’s” from the Petaluma business founded by Robert Graham; joined in 1995, the two words put a family-style title in front of a surname. Collins tested the combined brand in 1994 before converting both chains to it, the directory says.

Owners have changed around that name — Collins, Lee Equity Partners, public shareholders and, since 2019, MTY Food Group — while the merged name and the take-and-bake format have stayed in place.

For a design guide, Papa Murphy’s shows how a tray, a wrap and a baking label become part of a pizza brand when the oven is at home. Compare Round Table Pizza and Domino’s. For this guide we use oven red, pepper green and tray cream with a serif, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Papa Murphy’s’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.