"The best way to improve financial performance is tofocus on top-line sales, and we believe our newproduct strategy has been a major reason for ourstrong 2005 results to date," said the chain'spresident and CEO Nigel Travis during the its thirdquarter earnings conference call.

Papa's Perfect Pan, a new crust which was launched in October,boosted the chain's same-store sales by 3.9% duringthe quarter, which included an 8.7% increase atcompany-owned restaurants and a 2.3% increase atfranchised restaurants, Travis noted. And same-storesales for October increased 5.9%, growing despite 30restaurant closures, including seven closures relatedto Hurricane Katrina. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were estimated to negatively impact comp sales by roughly 0.4% for the quarter.

Also during the quarter, 27 domestic and 21 international restaurants were opened. The new pizza, which is said to feature a tastier crust, pushed revenues to $236.3 million, an increase of 3.7% from $227.8 million for the same period in 2004. Net income for the third quarter of 2005 was $10.8 million, or 62 cents per share. The earnings include an 11 cent gain per share associated with the consolidation of BIBP Commodities Inc.