- 5 days ago
The Food That Built America S07E01
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00:06it's a 150 billion dollar a year global industry with over 350 slices eaten in america every
00:15second pizza is both an artisanal art form and a crowd-pleasing delicacy love the world over
00:22but it wouldn't be possible without an epic three-way race
00:26pizza hut little caesars and domino's changed the pizza game to become the largest pizza chain
00:33on the planet the reason that we even know pizza in this country is because of the big chains when
00:40a new upstart little caesars challenges the reigning titans we're better than domino's and
00:45pizza hut this is the beginning of the pizza war they'll each have to think outside the box
00:51the pan pizza it was like pizza on steroids by reinventing pizza it's like a mutant pizza
00:59creation as we know it he took leftover product and turn it into something else why don't you try an
01:05order of our new crazy crust it's really a stroke of genius and before the war is over pizza that
01:11isn't your company anymore one bold decision he's switching to a rival company will upend the entire
01:18industry and it changes the landscape of pizza forever papa john's and all of a sudden it goes
01:27from domino's and pizza hut to the big four
01:53in 1979 the burgeoning pizza industry has become one of the fastest growing markets in the u.s.
02:00food sector at this time there's thousands of pizzerias in the united states many of them are mom
02:07and pops in major cities yet none of them offer much in the way of variety it's not what you
02:14imagine
02:14today it's a couple of sizes and that's it it's a thin crust it's got cheese it's got sauce you
02:21didn't walk in to a pizzeria and have fancy pizza toppings thrown in your face nobody put pineapple
02:27on a pizza there were no breadsticks no wings no crazy bread no dessert sticks there was none of
02:34that but there's this growing collection of chain pizzerias centralizing in the midwest who introduced
02:42pizza to the masses among these midwestern chains are the leader in pizza delivery domino's and the
02:51overall industry leader pizza hut where the co-founder and current president frank carney has recently
02:58sold his 21 year old company to pepsico for over 300 million dollars by 1979 pizza hut had undergone
03:07this huge transformation to suddenly a massive nationwide business
03:16which means frank carney is now beholden to a board to shareholders and to pepsico as a whole
03:23so he is no longer the big cheese he is an employee so now he's in the hot seat as
03:29they're expecting
03:30results frank we do need something in the two years since the sale to pepsico pizza hut sales were
03:37slipping so they had to do something to shake up the business have you thought of adding delivery
03:42service like domino's yeah we tried that once years ago but trust me the headache is not worth it
03:51unlike domino's frank carney wanted to keep pizza hut a sedentary restaurant dining experience and not
03:58focus on delivery that was a no-go for him and perhaps a two-for-one deal like little caesar's
04:05little caesar's at this point he's laser focused on beating domino's he's not remotely concerned
04:14about this little weird upstart chain little caesar's but this regional pizza chain has just hit the
04:22airwaves with their first national ad campaign only little caesar's has the famous pizza pizza
04:28pizza pizza pizza and it's about to transform a two-horse race into a three-way battle for
04:35supremacy pizza pizza it means never having to say you're hungry but before little caesar's enters the
04:42big time it all started 20 years early when just outside of detroit a former baseball player is chasing
04:52a new dream mike illich was a minor league baseball player for the detroit tigers and when he sustained
04:59a career-ending knee injury his major league dreams go up in smoke he had to have surgery the tigers
05:07weren't interested in keeping him around so now here he is 29 years old he's got a wife marion and
05:14now
05:14three children to support desperate to make ends meet illich is going all in on an unproven concept
05:22when he finished his baseball career he had a short period where he ran a kitchen at a local bar
05:29where he grew to love making pizza he actually taught himself how to bake it illich believes pizza has the
05:38potential of being the next big thing up there with hamburgers and hot dogs so he said i love this
05:43i want to make this my mission in life to create it so he and marion took their life savings
05:50and opened a little pizzeria in garden city and it starts with a name
06:02pizza treats yeah well you don't like it
06:10one day their small pizzeria will grow to over 5 000 locations around the world generate over 4
06:17billion dollars a year and sell roughly 1 million pizzas every single day but first
06:25they need to agree on what to call it his wife marion wants to incorporate her little nickname for him
06:32he's a take charge kind of guy and he's a short king at 5 9 so she likes to call
06:37him affectionately
06:43little caesar
06:44little caesar's pizza treat
06:47pizza treat or little caesar's pizza treat
06:51neither name is very ideal
07:01it was marion at the register mike at the oven making pizza it was handmade with the best quality
07:09ingredients and soft fluffy dough but the vast majority of americans had never tried pizza there
07:16was only one pizza hut and dominoes hadn't even been invented yet hedging their bets mike also includes
07:22more familiar items on the menu they didn't just serve pizzas they had chicken fish and chips
07:28so there's something for everybody little caesar's pizza treat your name another medium pepperoni got it
07:36to save money illich does something no other pizzeria is doing how can i help you can i get a
07:43table
07:45sorry we're take out only
07:47in the 1950s fast food restaurants like mcdonald's had takeout but they also had dining areas where
07:54people can sit down to eat food the concept of a takeout only restaurant was basically unheard of
08:02but his belief was i need to keep overhead low and one huge cost is table service
08:09tell you what first order's on us so just take the pie with you and enjoy the home forget it
08:30the margins are really tight he seeks advice from a total stranger mike was incredibly gregarious he could
08:40strike up conversations anywhere and one day he starts a conversation with a completely random
08:46individual about his restaurant you'll never get rich running a pizza shop you need several
08:54i can barely afford one you expect me to open several it's called franchising
09:01the franchising model works by a company leasing out its name image and know-how to a franchisee in
09:06exchange for royalties and fees for marketing so by franchising he realizes he can grow a brand and get
09:14paid while doing it we're going to give people good value okay lots of cheese lots of pepperoni so his
09:23business model doesn't just remain selling pizzas it's selling franchises now you're learning in 1962
09:32mike illich becomes the first person in michigan to start a franchise food chain it's kind of amazing
09:38that little caesar's might never have been a chain if a random stranger hadn't put that idea mike illich
09:44had said and by 1963 there are eight locations throughout the state pizza quickly became the restaurant's
09:52best seller and as that happens it becomes the hip cool food especially for the youth culture
09:58so they removed fish and chips and chicken from the menu and they started serving
10:05just pizza with the menu streamlined illich takes things one step further once he had narrowed that
10:12focus mike changed the name from little caesar's pizza treat which is a mouthful to say
10:18to just little caesar's with an eye toward going national illich goes all in on franchising
10:25increasing the number of locations in michigan and the neighboring states to over 150 by the end of
10:32the 1970s but with domino's and pizza hut growing to roughly 300 and 3000 locations respectively illich
10:41is desperately trying to catch up little caesar's what can i get you mike illich is still a fledgling
10:51pizza restaurateur with the idea of having a nationwide chain and he realizes that just having takeout is
10:58not enough of course our pizza is good we're better than domino's and pizza hut but he needs to find
11:03an
11:03angle something that the big guys are not yet doing and a way to garner his own market share
11:10why don't you come see for yourself first order's on us great i'll see you soon then
11:20who gives away whole pizzas for free
11:25when mike illich is put into a position of competition
11:29his immediate reaction is to always be better be bigger be bolder
11:38and the light bulb goes off
11:41and he says to beat the competition i'm going to offer a promotion the likes of which no pizza chain
11:48has ever done buy one pizza get one free this is a massive gamble
12:00in 1979 mike illich is determined to turn little caesar's into a national chain so he meets with an
12:09ad agency to pitch his unprecedented idea you want to give away an entire pizza with every order exactly
12:18usually you buy one get one free soda something that has easy profit margins to deal with but this
12:23is your main product you're offering a second one for free it's ridiculous mirian show them the box
12:40i know what you're thinking why not just stack two pizza boxes on top of each other mike was excited
12:47about telling his customer how much value they were getting he didn't want to stack the two pizzas on top
12:52of each other because that looks and feels like one pizza i want people to feel like they're getting
12:58an unbelievable deal and i want everyone who sees them walking down the street to notice
13:03so what he does is create a double wide pizza box that in and of itself is kind of crazy
13:10but illich is
13:11convinced he needs to make just a gigantic splash if he wants to go up against these powerhouses like
13:16dominoes and pizza hut i want a slogan something people will remember this is how we go nationwide
13:24the nationwide ad is a massive gamble he's going to spend millions of dollars on a commercial that's
13:29going to air in places where they don't even have a little caesar's within a hundred miles but i think
13:33that speaks to the genius of mike illich because ultimately the commercials were not designed to reach
13:40customers but rather potential franchisees in 1979 little caesar's launches their first national
13:50television campaign featuring their soon to be iconic slogan pizza pizza pizza pizza pizza pizza pizza
13:59and in addition to creating the buzzword of the time they also developed the most viral pizza box ever
14:07they also made these funny quirky memorable commercials that just really made the big box look
14:12like fun little caesar's pizza pizza the very large value the pizza pizza was genius he had found that
14:20little thing that would differentiate him from delivery or a sit-down restaurant and it really shook up the
14:27pizza industry and the number one pizza chain in the country takes notice so much good food for so
14:34little money pizza pizza pizza it means never having to say you're hungry break your thoughts
14:42on little caesar's i don't think they're really anything to worry about i mean they're a takeout
14:48chain right for the past two years earnings have slipped and with little caesar's very fun advertising
14:53campaign now the board is concerned about pizza hut's ability to maintain its position as number one i think
14:58what we need to focus on is improving the dine-in experience and making sure that our customers
15:04get the best quality pizza they can find according to our surveys customers prefer a pizza with a
15:11thicker crust pizza hut's original menu had two pizza styles they had thin crust and a slightly thicker
15:18crust what we would now just call standard crusts but frank realized that customers wanted a thicker pizza
15:24style so i say let's give the people what they want this is the future of pizza hut pizza
15:38the pan pizza
15:41what we now know and love is the classic pan pizza that has a thicker crust like chicago deep dish
15:47pizza
15:47but it's much breadier it's not dense and flaky and pastry like it comes out of the kitchen blazing hot
15:54and this pan sizzling there in front of you that's a world of difference from getting a pizza in a
15:59cardboard box
16:00and this is revolutionary it will be one of the most popular and most enduring pizzas of all time
16:08you're not going to serve it in that thing are you
16:11that's the idea that's the idea yeah except they don't get it they don't like it they don't understand
16:16it well it's all part of an experience we don't need to waste our energy on gimmicky promotions
16:23our sales say otherwise
16:27frank corney is a successful guy he's run this huge company he's probably thinking what more do i have to
16:33prove i think i know how to run my own company frank pizza hut isn't your company anymore
16:45in 1980 just three years after selling pizza hut to pepsico frank carney resigns clearly frank
16:54carney's vision for the company does not align with that of pepsico and he didn't want to stick around
17:00but then pepsico makes an unexpected decision just months after rejecting carney's new idea
17:08pepsico releases the pan pizza nationwide
17:14the pan pizza is not just a menu item it's a spectacle there's almost like a crispy caramelized
17:21fried quality to the dough it's like pizza cake it's like pizza cake it quickly became pizza hut's
17:28number one seller and it still is today the pan pizza helps separate pizza hut even further from
17:35the pack you have dominoes which is all about delivery you've got little caesars which is
17:39smaller than all about takeout but pizza hut is a restaurant and a restaurant's job is to provide
17:44its customers with an experience not just food so the pan pizza is exactly that experience ending the
17:51chain's three consecutive years of slipping profits by 1981 the game changing product boosts pizza hut's
17:59annual sales to nearly one billion dollars at a time when thin crust pizzas are the only pizzas
18:08the pan pizza at pizza hut inspires a treasure trove of thicker pizzas across the country
18:14but frank's not pleased the pan pizza this was his baby he knows he deserves full credit for that product
18:25so frank's not done with the pizza business he'll come back and he will alter the industry yet again
18:36in 1981 little caesars has over 220 locations across the midwest yet mike illich is still struggling to
18:46keep his head above water okay so that's two medium pepperoni their two for one pizza pizza deal has been
18:53a runaway success but it's also caused them to cut their profit margins dangerously thin how can he keep
19:00the profits coming in and still run the promotion without tanking the business are you liking anything
19:07else so illich is looking for a way to increase profits without increasing costs what do we have
19:19working in a pizza shop you know you're going to end up with extra dough by the end of the
19:23day
19:24this is going to be food waste why don't you try an order of our new side
19:30great we'll see you soon he thought why not turn this into our advantage
19:40and so in a moment of inspiration
19:46he takes the ingredients he already has and creates this brand new product
19:52made of pizza dough with butter garlic and parmesan cheese on top
19:57illich gives his new creation a clever name
20:02now breadsticks are everywhere but crazy bread was the first bread-based side for a pizza restaurant
20:08in america and it's so wild because ultimately you're just feeding repurposed pizza dough but he really
20:14paves the way for a whole new dimension to the pizza menu when he adds pizza adjacent sides much like
20:23a hamburger has the accompaniment of french fries little caesar's pizza is now accompanied by
20:29this delicious buttery parmesan covered treat so essentially give people an extra pizza for free but get them to pay
20:39for side dishes
20:43meanwhile pizza hut has been hard at work on their own new menu item to increase profits and stay ahead
20:50of
20:50the pack after combing through their numbers the top brass spot a potential target not wasted scraps
20:58but wasted time
21:02pizza restaurants are not popular at lunchtime because pizzas take longer to bake and they require
21:09multiple people to consume the average fast food chain makes the bulk of their daily revenue
21:14at lunch between 35 and 40 percent at pizza hut lunch orders only account for around 15 percent
21:23pizza hut has no lunch market so there's millions of dollars they're not being made during that period of
21:31time and so pizza hut pivots to something that addresses the lunch crowd
21:37something that is iconic and adorable and deeply delicious
21:46the personal pan pizza i think the genius behind the branding of the personal pan pizza is not just
21:55that it sounds better than extra small but also allows people to really have their own choices when
22:02they're ordering it's a little six inch pie you can get the same toppings that you would get on the
22:08larger format pizza but it's not meant to be shared so instead of one family getting one large pizza everybody
22:14can get their own personal pizza priced at a dollar 49 and guaranteed to be ready in just five minutes
22:22pizza hut's lunchtime business quickly jumps by 70 percent it totally upended the thinking about eating
22:31lunch at pizza restaurants and if we're thinking about this like a pizza war this is like pizza hut
22:36gaining an important territory on the battlefields
22:41pizza hut's latest victory isn't just bad news for little caesar's but for america's number two pizza
22:48chain dominoes since launching nearly 25 years ago tom monahan's chain has gone from a single storefront
22:57to over 2 000 locations nationwide all offering something pizza hut and little caesar's don't
23:04he's just supposed to go out 40 minutes ago come on dominoes distinguishes itself by being incredibly
23:09simple good to go all right they focus on delivery and speed but then tom monahan hears that pizza hut's
23:18promising this personal pan pizza in five minutes or less but you have to go to pizza hut to order
23:26one
23:27so he realizes dominoes needs to create their own little gimmick tom monahan knows that the average
23:35delivery time is around 24 minutes so he decides to do something unprecedented in the history of pizza
23:44dominoes guaranteed delivery in 30 minutes or less in 1984 dominoes revamps their successful
23:51delivery service by offering a 30-minute guarantee or your pizza is free it's absolutely brilliant
23:59because they're not giving away that many free pizzas that attract a ton of attention and really
24:04gets them going on the national scene it was almost unsustainable but it captured the imagination
24:10a gamified pizza for heaven's sake suddenly you weren't just ordering a pizza it was a race against
24:16time by the end of 1985 dominoes hits record sales of over 1 billion dollars across their 2800 locations
24:25the 30-minute guarantee made dominoes not just the fastest growing pizza restaurant in the united states
24:31it also made it the fastest growing restaurant chain in history expanding his lucrative empire
24:37monahan becomes the first pizza chain owner to buy a different type of franchise
24:44for 53 million dollars monahan buys the detroit tigers baseball team it was one of the highest amounts
24:52paid for a franchise at that time meanwhile by the mid-1980s little caesar's national ad campaign
24:59is finally paying off potential franchisees just love this pizza concept with outlandish boxes and
25:08crazy commercials and so little caesar's is just booming they're growing so incredibly fast they're
25:15adding store after store by 1986 there are 1000 locations across 38 states and all of a sudden it goes
25:23from two big pizza players to the big three and these three companies are all in their own lanes
25:31little caesar's is a takeout business dominoes focuses on delivery and pizza hut is a sit-down experience
25:39but that delicate balance is about to be shattered in 1986 pizza hut decides that it's going to go head
25:46to head with dominoes in the delivery space and they have an ad campaign that shows two guys playing
25:51dominoes and they actually say maybe some people just don't like dominoes anymore guess not this is
25:57a real insult to them so this really kicks off the pizza wars where these different companies
26:04all start eyeing each other's businesses as a way for them to expand and get ahead
26:10by 1991 pizza hut's delivery business becomes a 1.2 billion dollar a year cash cow allowing them to
26:18control over 20 percent of the pizza delivery market and cut into dominoes bottom line with pizza hut
26:26introducing delivery the 30 minute guarantee becomes more important than ever to succeed in this
26:33market that's now getting pretty crowded while less than 10 of dominoes deliveries are late those free
26:39pizzas cost dominoes nearly 80 million dollars a year and this is forcing managers to pressure their drivers
26:46to make those deliveries on time that causes the drivers to speed to drive recklessly to make
26:51that 30 minute cutoff and unfortunately an accident occurs dominoes is found liable for nearly 80 million
27:01dollars in damages and more lawsuits follow after other delivery driver accidents dominoes got sued like
27:08200 times so following those lawsuits monaghan and dominoes decided to shut down the 30 minute guarantee
27:18forced to cancel their guarantee after less than a decade sales slip two years in a row
27:24and by 1992 dominoes must close hundreds of locations instead of dominoes being at the top of
27:31the food chain now dominoes is competing with little caesars for the number two spot so tom monaghan
27:40realizes dominoes realizes dominoes is in trouble and he is scrambling to try to stay afloat and
27:45financially viable that's when monaghan throws a hail mary sir he's here send him in
28:01tom monaghan is going to make an offer that mike illich can't refuse
28:12in the early 1990s after suffering store closures slipping profits and mounting lawsuits the founder
28:20of dominoes reaches out to his newest rival little caesar's mike illich tom monaghan he's struggling
28:28with dominoes and desperate for life ramps
28:33what's your offer highest of the millennia go is 85. that's my best and final offer he comes up
28:41with a proposition for mike illich that he can't refuse
28:49done 85 million he decides to sell illich
28:55the detroit tigers the very team for whose minor league franchise mike illich used to play
29:02mike illich loved baseball it coursed through his veins and so owning the detroit tigers would bring
29:09him back to his roots if you can't play for them why don't you own them tom monaghan thinks this
29:15team
29:16has been a distraction he wants to focus on pizza and rebuilding dominoes
29:23oh uh by the way dominoes would be offering takeout as an option not just delivery
29:30when you have these two pizza guys with these big personalities i want you to hear from me first
29:38there's no doubt that they're going to eventually run up against one another within weeks dominoes
29:45adds carryout counters to its 5 000 plus locations little caesar's punches back by launching a new
29:53delivery service and by 1994 there's a new number two pizza chain little caesar's
30:03leaving tom monaghan desperate for a new way to fight back everything in the pizza wars has been a
30:10direct response to a move by one of the competitors one adds takeout the other one has
30:16takeout one adds delivery the other one adds delivery but tom monaghan realizes the only way i'm
30:23going to really get one over on little caesar's and on pizza hut is if i do something wholly
30:28original that they are not doing what are these
30:35chicken wings they're smothered in a hot and tangy sauce
30:45wings are a regional delicacy from upstate new york the idea of getting them in pizza places
30:52was not the norm in the mid 90s it was definitely not common in fact the wings were sort of
30:59the
30:59scraps of the chicken it's got a kick
31:09i think these two go great with pizza
31:13in 1994 dominoes launches a little known delicacy as a new side item
31:22buffalo wings
31:24at this time buffalo wild wings had only about 15 locations in the midwest so believe it or not
31:32most people in america tasted their first ever buffalo wing courtesy of dominoes and it becomes a
31:39nationwide taste sensation after adding wings to their menu dominoes total revenue increases roughly 300
31:46million dollars closing the gap on industry leader pizza hut who is starting to feel the heat
31:56do you have a typical order mushrooms and pepperoni but an ambitious new pizza hut
32:03employee named patty scheidmer is hoping to find the company's next big innovation she's a recent
32:11graduate with a degree in home economics she joins the pizza team as a food scientist
32:16even though she's a low level member of the team she has got grand ambitions for pizza hut
32:22and she decides for inspiration to run focus groups desperate to make a name for
32:27herself scheidmer has spent weeks searching for ways to reinvigorate pizza sales do you typically have
32:34leftovers no not really
32:39except for the pizza bones i'll feed them to my dog
32:44in one of these focus groups patty hears one of the attendees use the term pizza bones which are
32:50the crusts that you leave on the plate you don't eat the crust
32:56and suddenly patty realizes there's an opportunity here what if the crust was as delicious and as
33:03desirable as the pizza itself scheidmer doesn't know it but this innocent comment will lead to a
33:11billion dollar idea and reimagine how we eat pizza
33:21in the mid-1990s pizza hut's patty scheidmer has discovered a possible key to unlocking pizza's
33:29full potential she realizes in focus groups that people are really leaving the crust behind one guy
33:37actually calls the crust pizza bones so how do you prevent people from leaving pizza bones on the plate
33:43well you make the crust taste better and the main thing people love about pizza is the melty cheese
33:53so of course a perfect way to make the crust taste better is by stuffing it with cheese
34:01scheidmer begins experimenting with a variety of cheeses
34:05at the time this was completely unprecedented this is like putting a side dish inside the pizza
34:13but it's not as simple as just putting cheese into the edge of a dough not all cheeses are the
34:19same
34:19they have different amounts of moisture and if it's too little moisture the cheese won't melt properly
34:25if it's too much moisture
34:30you'll have a buildup of steam that'll rip through the crust and then you get molten cheese pouring out the
34:35edge
34:41finally she tests a relatively new product called string cheese
34:47string cheese had become popular in the late 1980s and was available at most grocery stores in the country
34:53and its diameter is exactly the right size for pushing into a pizza crust
35:04the beauty of the string cheese product is that it's a mozzarella but unlike most mozzarella
35:10it's been stretched a little longer and so the casein proteins tend to have stronger bonds
35:22so as you pull apart the crusts you get this perfectly viscous cheese pull which is so visual
35:31and it goes right along with that idea of having an experience with the food and
35:35not just making it be something that fills your belly on march 26th 1995 pizza huts stuffed crust
35:44pizza hits their roughly 8 000 locations nationwide people loved stuffed crust pizza when it came out
35:52it was something that hadn't been seen in pizza before the crust was always just a glorified handle
35:59the moment you make the crust edible pizza becomes a very different type of food it means that you can
36:06eat the crust first you can dip it in a sauce and the idea of taking a often discarded bit
36:14of the pizza and
36:15making it arguably one of the most desirable parts of it this was revolutionary within months the new product
36:22accounts for nearly 30 percent of all pizza hut sales and in its first year alone stuffed crust pizza
36:30becomes a 1 billion dollar product
36:37but not everyone is thrilled with pizza hut's most recent success notably their former president frank
36:44carney looking at what was happening with his baby pizza hut frank carney was not too pleased at their
36:50decision to go toward mass appeal in the face of this mom and pop restaurant that he started since
36:56leaving his company over a decade ago carney has struggled to find his next big project after he sells off
37:04his pizza company to pepsi he goes into venture capital and loses his shirt so he decides he's possibly
37:12not a real good investment guy but he knows his pizza he still had energy and new ideas and new
37:18concepts that
37:19he wanted to put into pizza and it's around this time that he discovers a young pizza chain coming out
37:25of indiana that had been growing in popularity carney doesn't know it but his disdain for his former
37:31company will spur his unexpected return to the pizza industry and it won't be with pizza hut
37:45in the mid-1990s the co-founder of pizza hut is feeling stuck since leaving pizza hut in 1980 frank
37:53carney
37:54used his finances to become venture capitalists but didn't work out so well for him but he couldn't
38:00go back to pizza hut they had moved on without him so instead of starting a new brand in the
38:18way that
38:18he did in the late 1950s he decides to latch on to another chain pizza company that had been growing
38:24in
38:28popularity really good and i speak of course of papa john's papa john's is a small pizza chain that
38:37was founded in indiana in 1984. there are only a few hundred stores more of a regional local company
38:44not a national player and so compared to the big three there's not a lot going on there papa john's
38:52but frank carney thinks that papa john's can go bigger he thinks that they have what it takes to
38:57be a contender in the national pizza industry so carney takes one last shot at investing and opens his
39:04own papa john's franchise which proves to be a hit by 1997 he owns over 60 and tells everyone about
39:12it
39:13in his own unique way frank decides to announce to the world that he's working with papa john's
39:19by producing a commercial in which he declares to the board of pizza hut that he's changing teams
39:25sorry guys i found a better pizza it was an incredibly audacious move you have one of the
39:35founders of pizza hut switching to a rival company and not just any rival company not the second place
39:42or third place but like a young upstart company this is a big deal it's a massive shake-up it's
39:49a
39:49mic drop moment pizza hut needless to say is not pleased by these ads so they file a lawsuit against
39:55papa john's papa john's loves this this is the best press they could ever get especially when the court
40:02rules in favor of papa john's it really backfired on pizza hut because this is the thing that puts papa
40:09john's on the map and skyrockets them into the number four biggest pizza chain in the united states
40:15no longer is there just a big three now it's a big four
40:22and frank carney ends up with 133 franchises for papa john's and becomes a major player in the company
40:32frank carney's impact on the world of pizza in this country is undeniable he's co-founder of the
40:39largest pizza chain in the world pizza hut and he's also the guy who helped make papa john's the
40:44number four pizza chain that's incredible but carney's success would not have been possible without
40:52the rivals that pushed him to new heights like tom monaghan who retires in 1998 after selling all but a
41:01small steak of dominoes for a whopping 1.1 billion dollars tom monaghan is all about innovation and his
41:10fingerprint on the pizza industry will be felt forever and mike and marion illich who transformed
41:17little caesar's into the world's biggest carry out pizza chain with over 5 000 locations across the globe
41:25mike illich is a man who rose from nothing who took a small investment with his wife and turned it
41:33into
41:33a billion dollar business and now he's become one of the big pizza kings today the big four pizza chains
41:43remain the same with gross annual revenue placing papa john's in fourth little caesar's in third only now
41:50pizza hut is number two just behind dominoes at number one on the surface these companies were
41:57competing with each other but what they were actually doing was they legitimized the idea of pizza to
42:05mainstream america the chains still control about half of the pizza business in america so as much as
42:11i am a mom and pop pizza guy i love that the chain pizzerias exist there is this beautiful sort
42:18of pizza pie
42:19circle of life where all of the pizza communities are working together even though they are competing
42:27and the spoils of the pizza war they come to us
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