Word: pizzas
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...that his mother abandoned him at the age of four to foster homes and an orphanage. As owner of the Detroit Tigers, he liked to swoop down on home games in his helicopter. He once considered building a 35-story slanted tower dubbed--what else?--the Leaning Tower of Pizza...
...know you're a red-hot pepperoni when rivals attack you and employees tremble whenever you come around. A visit from John Schnatter, the perfectionist CEO of the fast-growing Papa John's International pizza chain, makes "the hair stand up on the back of your neck," says Tracy Friedlein, who manages a company-owned pizzeria in Louisville, Ky. "You run to do everything to prove yourself." But Pizza Hut chief Mike Rawlings, who has brought a federal lawsuit charging that Papa John's "better ingredients, better pizza" campaign is false and misleading, sees Schnatter in a harsher light. "They...
...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...