News

Schnatter out after using racial slur

July 12, 2018

Papa John's has severed all ties with Founder John Schnatter. At 10:59 p.m. the company's board said Wednesday night that it had accepted his resignation as chair after news broke that he had allegedly used racial slurs during a May conference. Chair was the last remaining affiliation Schnatter had with the company that he founded 33 years ago. He had already resigned as CEO in late December. 

CBS News reported last night that the company released a statement from Schnatter saying, "News reports attributing the use of inappropriate and hurtful language to me during a media-training session regarding race are true. ... Regardless of the context, I apologize. Simply stated, racism has no place in our society," Schnatter's statement said. 

Forbes magazine broke the news, saying that a media training company that had been working with the brand ended its business relationship with Papa John's after the May conference call, which was actually taking place to help Schnatter avoid these types of problems involving racially charged topics in the future.

During the call, according to Forbes, Schnatter used the N-word as he asserted that another well-known fast-food chain founder had used the word but not faced public scrutiny. Forbes said that Schnatter had recalled his early years in Indiana when he said people used to drag African-Americans from trucks until they died.

Late last night in a brief press release the company's board stated simply that Olivia Kirtley is now acting as the lead independent director and that a new board chair will be installed "in coming weeks."

As Pizza Marketplace has been reporting since last year, Schnatter has been distancing himself from the company after making comments to the company's directors last October that blamed the brand's poor performance on its affiliation as the Official Pizza Sponsor of the NFL. At the time, the NFL was embroiled in a controversy over players kneeling during the national anthem to protest discrimination against African Americans in the U.S. 

Papa John's terminated its affiliation with the NFL in February, followed the next day by an announcement that competitor Pizza Hut had assumed the rights to the official sponsorship. 

CBS said the NAACP in Louisville — where Schnatter lives and Papa John's is based — was demanding that the former CEO be removed from the University of Louisville's board of trustees, which did in fact happen today, according to Louisville Business First. In Louisville, the university's stadium is also branded,  Papa John's Cardinal Stadium. 

The company provided no other information. A spokesman contacted this morning said the news release of Wednesday night was all the details they plan to offer.

Photo: iStock