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U.S. NEWS Saturday 4 November 2017

NFL sidelined pizza sales? Papa John’s says yes, others no

By JOSEPH PISANI the country,” CEO John request for comment this working to up its deliv- cause we saw no reason
AP Retail Writer Schnatter said Wednesday week. ery game and catch up to call it out,” a Domino’s
NEW YORK (AP) — The CEO after the company had re- Restaurant analyst John with the more tech-savvy spokeswoman said Thurs-
of Papa John’s slammed leased softer sales figures. Gordon says he is skepti- Domino’s Pizza Inc., which day.
the NFL’s leadership and “NFL leadership has hurt cal of the NFL’s impact. makes it easy for customers As for Papa John’s, it re-
blamed protests by foot- ported this week that third-
ball players for pizza sales quarter sales rose 1 percent
going cold. at established locations
A day later, rival Pizza Hut in North America, which it
said it saw no such impact. said was below what it had
So what’s going on? expected. In the same pe-
Papa John’s is closely as- riod a year ago, sales rose
sociated with the NFL, due 5.5 percent at established
to its sponsorship of the locations.“We believe the
league. But experts say it reason for the sales decline
is also facing more com- is more complicated than
petition as other fast-food fewer people are watch-
chains start to deliver burg- ing NFL games,” analysts
ers and fried chicken, tak- at Stifel said. The analysts
ing a bite out of pizza sales. said it appears that Papa
And there may be other John’s puts more money
issues in play: More people to advertise on NFL games
are cooking at home, and and has “has fewer adver-
Papa John’s may have tising dollars to allocate
been too dependent on to other consumer seg-
TV ads at a time when ments.”
more people are spending Papa John’s said this week
time online. it hired a new creative
The NFL also has fewer This Thursday, Dec. 15, 2016, photo shows a Pizza Hut restaurant in New Orleans. On Thursday, Nov. agency that will help it cre-
viewers than it used to. The 2, 2017, Yum Brands said it saw a key sales measure rise at KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell for the ate more digital ads“We’re
average game this season third quarter, and said it saw no effect on sales due to declining NFL viewership, a day after Papa an e-commerce brand —
has attracted 14.8 million John’s blamed weaker pizza sales on the controversy over protests during the national anthem. it’s time we stop thinking in
(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
viewers, down from 15.6 TV scripts,” Chief Marketing
million at the same point Papa John’s sharehold- There was a time when to order pizza pies through Officer Brandon Rhoten
last year. ers,” he added. pizza chains were the only apps, social media posts or said in a statement.q
Former San Francisco 49ers “This should have been ones able to deliver food even text messages.
quarterback Colin Kaepe- nipped in the bud a year quickly, but that’s chang- Pizza Hut said Thursday
rnick kneeled during the and a half ago.” ing rapidly, says Gordon, that sales rose 1 percent
national anthem to pro- Pizza Hut said the opposite: the founder and CEO of at its established locations
test what he said was po- “We’re not seeing any im- Pacific Management Con- worldwide and were flat
lice mistreatment of black pact from any of that on sulting Group.McDonald’s in the United States, an im-
males. our business,” said Greg Corp., for example, ex- provement from past quar-
More players started to Creed, who is CEO of Pizza pects to expand delivery ters.
kneel after President Don- Hut owner Yum Brands Inc. of its burgers, nuggets and Domino’s, though, said
ald Trump said in Sep- Commissioner Roger fries from 5,000 of its nearly sales rose 8.4 percent at
tember that team owners Goodell and several own- 14,000 U.S. locations by the established U.S. stores dur-
should get rid of those who ers said at the league’s fall end of the year. ing the third quarter. That’s
protest during the anthem. meetings last month that And KFC, which like Piz- down from the 13 percent
Papa John’s said custom- they did not discuss alter- za Hut is owned by Yum growth it reported in the
ers now have a negative ing the anthem policy lan- Brands, hopes to double same period the year be-
view of the chain’s asso- guage from “should stand” delivery sales at the fried fore.
ciation with the NFL. “The to “must stand.” chicken chain to $2 billion “Nothing we reported in
controversy is polarizing A representative for the by 2020. the quarter included com-
the customer, polarizing NFL didn’t respond to a Pizza Hut has also been mentary about the NFL be-