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Papa John's International Inc. has launched a text messaging ordering option at all of its 2,700 U.S. locations.

Close to one in five of the Louisville based company's orders are currently made online. Rivals such as Domino's Pizza promote mobile orders with Web-enabled phones.

Papa John's Chief Executive Nigel Travis said the company is the first to offer text message ordering on such a large scale. "Text ordering will allow us to reach a different group of customers who prefer text over online and email," Travis said.

To use the text service customers register online to create accounts. They can save four favorite orders, along with the delivery address and payment preference. Users can select "FAV1", "FAV2", "FAV3", or FAV4,' to text message orders. Papa John's sends a reply and the customer has the option to change or confirm the order.

Papa John's will also send promotions and advertisements to the cell phone users who sign up for the text service. Users can choose to opt out of the ads. Jim Ensign, vice president of marketing communications at Papa John's said the company would be careful not to deluge customers with promotional messages.

"Consumers today are looking for more convenience," Ensign said in an interview with the Courier-Journal. "That's the way people live today. They can't be tethered down to one way of doing things."