ANDOVER’S latest pizza establishment marked its official opening on Saturday with a pizza party.

The Papa John’s team gave away 200 pizzas to those who visited the store throughout the day and saw a number of local residents through the door – including Test Valley Deputy Mayor Jan Lovell, who tried her hand at making a pizza.

The shop is the latest in a chain of Papa John’s opening across the country and is boosting the local economy with a £200,000 investment and the creation of 25 jobs.

The store was opened by manager Jay Singh, who said: “Our new store has already proven to be very popular in the weeks we’ve been open, with Andover residents experiencing first hand our ‘better ingredients, better pizza’ philosophy, which has made us famous across the world.

“With the store being such a success, we thought it was only right to celebrate with a big pizza giveaway and let those who have yet to enjoy our pizza taste the reasons they will want to order from us in the future.

“It was also an honour to receive the Deputy Mayor in our store, and we really enjoyed celebrating our official opening event with her and our customers, old and new.”

Papa John’s was founded in the USA in 1984.

There are now more than 200 stores across the UK.