Politico: “Papa John’s: ‘Obamacare’ will raise pizza prices”

Byron Tau | 8/7/12 | 12:05 PM
Pizza chain Papa John’s told shareholders that President Obama’s health care law will cost consumers more on their pizza.
 
On a conference call last week, CEO and founder John Schnatter (a Mitt Romney supporter and fundraiser) said the health care law’s changes — set to go into effect in 2014 — will result in higher costs for the company — which they vowed to pass onto consumers.
 
“Our best estimate is that the Obamacare will cost 11 to 14 cents per pizza, or 15 to 20 cents per order from a corporate basis,” Schnatter said.
 
“We’re not supportive of Obamacare, like most businesses in our industry. But our business model and unit economics are about as ideal as you can get for a food company to absorb Obamacare,” he said.
 
“If Obamacare is in fact not repealed, we will find tactics to shallow out any Obamacare costs and core strategies to pass that cost onto consumers in order to protect our shareholders best interests,” Schnatter vowed.
 
Schnatter is not the first pizza magnate to bemoan proposed or actual changes to federal health care. In 1993, future presidential candidate Herman Cain charged that Bill Clinton’s proposed health care reform law would cost his company Godfather’s Pizza money and jobs.
 
“For many many businesses like mine, the cost of your plan is simply a cost that will cause us to eliminate jobs,” Cain told Clinton in a famous exchange.
 
Accessed 3/19/13, Politico