John Schnatter, the former CEO of the Papa John’s franchise, has just eaten 40 pizzas in 30 days. He says the quality is not what it was. He still holds a considerable slice in the franchise but sold off a large portion of his shares in the company in early November.
“I’ve had over 40 pizzas in the last 30 days, and it’s not the same pizza,” Schnatter told Kentucky news station WDRB.
“It’s not the same product. It just doesn’t taste as good,” Schnatter added.
“The way they’re making the pizza is just not fundamental to what makes a Papa John’s pizza,” he told the news station. It was his first interview since he was compelled to resign as CEO more than a year ago.
He wrote an op-ed in the New York Post last month, wherein he accused the company of having let go of its slogan, “Better Ingredients. Better Pizza” at the cost of making a financial win.
“… Papa John’s management may be emphasizing cost-cutting over product quality. Even the pizzas don’t appear to be made the way that I made them just a few years ago,” Schnatter said.
“This is all a farce,” Schnatter said belligerently. “Nothing sells like the truth, and the truth, sooner or later, all comes out,” WDBR noted.
Schnatter—the self-styled “Papa John” of the company, sold 1.9 million shares valued at $107.5 million. He now owns approximately 9.2 percent of the company—meaning he is still the largest shareholder.
Revenue at Papa John’s plummeted in late 2017 as Schnatter chose to enter the fray on the issue of NFL players taking a knee as the national anthem was being played.
It got worse from there for the founder. In a mid-2018 conference call with the marketing firm, Laundry Service, Schnatter was said to have used the N-word as he attributed the use of the same N-word to Colonel Sanders.
After Forbes asked him about the statements, he apologized unreservedly and resigned immediately. Schnatter later claimed that his comments were “misconstrued” and that the incident was used as leverage to remove him from the company, in an interview with Fox Business.
On the reason for selling his shares, Schnatter said: “I feel there’s no reason to be in the car when the car crashes—even when you love the car.”
Epoch Times reporter Allen McDonnell contributed to this report
