Look, we all thought it was funny when Papa John Schnatter claimed he had eaten 40 pizzas in 30 days, but now it is getting ridiculous. His consumption has continued unabated.
In a discussion with Bloomberg, the pizza mogul talked about the chain named after him. Papa John’s according to the man himself, has only gotten worse since he made his departure. In the past year and a half Schnatter insists that the pizza quality is just not up to snuff. Something that only he could keep track of since he’s eaten 800 pies in that time.
“Some were burnt, some were undercooked,” Schnatter said. “It kind of makes me laugh at [Papa John’s CEO] Rob Lynch. This guy is delusional. He has no idea how we built this company and the fundamentals. But he thinks it’s him. He really thinks that he’s done something magical.”
Whether or not the pizza was burnt, undercooked, or just bad, it is strange that he has tried so many pizzas. Surely he hasn’t actually eaten all 800 pizzas. Still, the fact that he has tested 800 pizzas, even just one bite a piece, is an impressive if not strange feat. It doesn’t seem that Papa John is doing so bad, though. He has posted videos to TikTok showing off his own helicopter.
While the stocks for the company have gone up since Schnatter’s exit, he doesn’t think it has anything to do with Lynch. He says that the pandemic and the food delivery boom are what has led to the success. While he may have a point, the turnaround has been astonishing since 2018, when the chain was closing stores and looking at the Schnatter controversy in the face.
Papa John’s Pizza Doing Well Under Rob Lynch
Despite John Schnatter’s arguments, the company is doing well. When they got rid of Schnatter, the company went into recovery and rebuild mode. It started things off with a new face of the franchise and a new CEO. It made changes to the board and has actually put plans into action.
The first thing the company did was get Shaquille O’Neal to be the first Black board member as well as the new face of the company. He is featured in almost all of the commercials nowadays. The hiring of Lynch brought in a boring, yet stable CEO and the company has done well since. Lynch started to boost employee morale and got sales to grow after a dark period for the company. Since the pandemic began, the company has done better than Domino’s and Pizza Hut, their direct competitors.
It seems that Papa John Schnatter is still hung up on his ex. The company continues to do well in its new capacity. It remains to be seen if the former CEO and face of the franchise is going to keep ordering pizzas and testing them out. I can’t imagine he isn’t a fan of that stuffed crust pizza but to each their own.
