Word: pizzas
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...school. Rising at 5 a.m. to lift weights and work out with the swim team, he set a record for fewest errors that stands today. (He brings a similar ardor to his current golf game, meticulously studying videotapes of his swing.) At the same time, Schnatter baked pizza at Rocky's Sub Pub, a neighborhood hangout, where he learned to make fresh dough. "That had to be where he got his basics from," says Pat Reel, a current Rocky's manager. "You can't just say, 'Here's the recipe, go do it.' There's a knack...
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...
...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...
...Pizza Hut (1997 sales: $4.7 billion), which has a 22% share of the pizza market and four times as many stores as Papa John's, has been busily boosting quality and shutting down poorly performing stores. Under pressure from Papa John's, Pizza Hut spent $50 million last year to roll out what it called Totally New Pizzas, featuring thicker tomato sauce, fresh sliced vegetables and meatier toppings. Meanwhile, Pizza Hut has closed 250 stores since PepsiCo spun it and siblings Taco Bell and KFC into Tricon last year. The new strategy pushed Pizza Hut's same-store sales...
That prospect has made Papa John's cheeky "better ingredients" claims particularly galling to the Pizza Hut high command. Taking its cue from Pizza Hut's own challenge to customers to find a better pizza, Papa John's twitted its rival for using tomato sauce made from yucky-sounding "remanufactured paste." To rub in more salt, Papa John's called on Pizza Hut co-founder Frank Carney, who sold the chain to PepsiCo in 1977 and now owns more than 70 Papa John's franchises, to declare in television spots, "Sorry, guys, I found a better pizza." Schnatter professes...