Word: papae
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...billion pizza industry, in which the thickness of tomato sauce and the texture of dough can be all-consuming passions, the truth these days is that Papa John's has been eating everyone else's lunch. The company has nearly doubled its market share in the past two years, to 4.1%--grabbing away business from No. 1 Pizza Hut and No. 3 Little Caesars and battling delivery king Domino's. Papa John's (1997 sales: $868 million) is the only one of the four largest pizza chains whose slice of the pie has grown at double-digit rates over...
Schnatter, 36, who gets visibly excited when talking about the sugar-acid ratio in his pizza, which gives Papa John's pies a distinctively sweet flavor, puts simplicity above all else. Pizza Hut offers more variety; Domino's stresses fast delivery; and Little Caesars sells the least expensive pies. Papa John's has no seating, offers just two types of pizza--no salads, sandwiches or buffalo wings--and remakes any pies that rate less than an 8 on the company's 10-point scale. If the cheese shows a single air bubble or the crust is not golden brown...
...Papa John's record is all the more impressive in view of the sluggish growth of the pizza market, which has reached a mature middle age. (Legend traces the modern mass industry to the appetites of Americans after World War II, when G.I.s who had been stationed in Italy returned with enthusiastic tales of open-faced cheese pies.) While Americans consume pizza at the rate of 350 slices a second, the market for restaurant pizzas has been growing just 2% a year. Yet Papa John's customers keep coming back for more. So far this year, Papa John's sales...
Schnatter perfected that knack while tending bar in Jeffersonville after graduating in three years from Ball State University. He took a sledgehammer to a broom closet and knocked out space for a small pizza kitchen, which soon grew into a business that became Papa John's in 1985 and went public in 1993. But his demanding manner was not to everyone's taste. No fewer than five top executives, including the company's president, quit in 1995 and 1996, in part because of Schnatter's brusque management style. Says Cheryl Bachelder, executive vice president for marketing at Domino...
Small wonder. Schnatter's 24% stake in Papa John's is worth some $250 million. (Papa John's stock tripled from 1993 to 1997 but has recently been down some 20% from its 52-week high.) Schnatter and his wife and three children live in a brick-and-stone mansion set on nearly 16 landscaped acres in suburban Louisville, Ky. One neighbor Schnatter probably doesn't call on: David Novak, the former boss of Pizza Hut and current president and vice chairman of Pizza Hut parent Tricon Global Restaurants, who lives not far away...