Well, it turns out that “being racists” isn’t the best way to sell pizza.
It also turns out that Papa John’s only had one real problem, and that problem is literally Papa John’s itself.
In case you forgot, last fall, Papa John’s ex-CEO John Schnatter tried to blame the pizza chain’s poor quarterly earnings report on Colin Kaepernick; black player’s exercising their First Amendment rights by kneeling during the national anthem; and the NFL in general:
It was an aftereffect of the league’s poor leadership…
[S]hould have been nipped in the bud a year and a half ago.”
Schnatter apologized for these blatantly racists comments, and Papa John’s removed him as CEO at the beginning of this year in order to clean up the little mess he made.
At that point, the NFL’s and Papa John’s partnership had been in good standing since 2010.
This past February, Papa announced that it was severing its ties with the shield and the NFL players.
Ipso facto, Papa John’s should be rolling in bags of money by now, right?
Because if you owned a huge pizza chain, and Colin Kaepernick was the “only reason that quarterly earnings were low,” so you cut all your ties with the NFL—by that logic—money should be falling down from the trees now, right?
Well again, that’s what you would expect if you, lets say, owned shares of Papa John’s in your stock portfolio.
However, yesterday, after Papa John’s reported to its shareholders that sales had fallen 5.3% since last year in the US, shareholders are simply expecting new Papa John’s CEO Steve Ritchie to explain why in the world they are still losing money.
Also, shareholders are probably going to want to know why Pizza Hut sales are up 1% this quarter—who stepped into Papa John’s partnership with the NFL once Papa severed its ties— despite being associated with the same Colin Kaepernick, the same black player’s exercising their First Amendment rights, and the same NFL that was causing Papa John’s to lose money.
A little advise: if you have a position in Papa John’s in your portfolio, sell it, and buy some shares of Yum Brands.