Former NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal continues to expand his business empire and grow his entrepreneurial chops…with pizza.
Shaq has been tapped to become the latest member of the Board of Directors for the Papa John’s pizza delivery chain. The company has been going through some hard financial times. Over the past two years, the company’s stock on Wall Street has been in a steep decline. In the past few weeks, Papa John’s founder John Schnatter sold about 3.8 million shares of stock in the company that he founded. While Schnatter is still the company’s biggest individual shareholder, his ownership is now about 19 percent of the company after having owned about 31 percent.
Schnatter stepped down as Papa John’s CEO in 2017 after a rather strange series of events. First, he blamed the National Football League for the company’s drop-off in sales. Then he resigned another top position – that of chairman – just last year after he admitted to using a racial slur during a conference call with marketing executives.
Now, in an effort to boost the company’s visibility and marketing, Papa John’s has brought in O’Neal to serve as a member of the Board of Directors and also as a new “brand ambassador.”
Recently, Papa John’s announced Shaq was upping his interest in the company by investing in nine company restaurants in the Atlanta area.
Several marketing websites have given the move a strong thumbs-up. Even though Shaq has been retired from the game since 2011, he is – as we know – still instantly recognizable. His number 32 Miami Heat jersey is one of the top-selling jerseys of all time
This is Shaq’s first venture into the pizza business, but not his first in the restaurant / fast-food area. He’s got franchising experience with Krispy Kreme (yes, those amazing donuts), and Five Guys (fabulous burgers), among other key investments and real estate deals.
In Atlanta, O’Neal’s new pizza outlets had to get a few special Shaq “touches.” All will feature his size 22 footprints for customers to see as they walk in. And if they want to call, there will be “SHAQ” in the phone numbers, one way or another.
The first Shaq-owned location is already open on Georgia Tech University’s main campus, near the TNT Studios where he films the “Inside the NBA” program. More will follow soon, and Shaq has even bigger plans. In an interview with the newspaper USA Today, Shaq said he planned to buy as many locations as he could, saying “Everyone loves pizza and pizza loves everyone.”