BATON ROUGE – It appears Papa Murphy's pizza locations in the region have abruptly closed.

The restaurant is a “take-and-bake” eatery – customers order pizzas at the store and take them home to bake and eat. Locations in Zachary and two in Baton Rouge at Towne Center and Old Jefferson seemed to have shutdown.  Others in the area closed months ago. 

Phone lines at all three locations went unanswered and at least one had a message that the line was disconnected. On the company's website, all three locations were listed as “closed today” even though stores are usually open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Wednesdays.

A public relations firm representing the company did not return calls or emails about the closure.  As WBRZ.com reported on local issues related to the company, Yahoo reported the company announced it was restructuring operations.  It was not clear how the company was dealing with closures or why the stores in Baton Rouge may have closed but the report suggested Papa Murphy's was looking to get rid of its corporate locations and reduce the number of corporate employees.

Thursday, the company released a statement: "The Baton Rouge market franchise owners decided to close their locations on Wednesday. The store closing was their personal decision and is not related to the realignment."

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