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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Other Side" data-source="post: 891709" data-attributes="member: 17969">2 points Trippy.   First, isnt that what I said only I left out the "fluffy explanation"?  I stated.... CAIN took control of Godfathers with 914 stores, and in less than 16 months, reduced that to 420 stores.  Pretty simple. No need to make excuses.  A reduction is a reduction and in no way demonstrates success.You said " And with his leading   abilities, he managed to settle some lawsuits, eliminated non-profitable  units,  introduced more products, and arranged for delivery services."Now, this sounds more problematic than successful.  Lawsuits?  Which ones?  Or do you mean the ones where the franchisees sued HIM and Pillsbury for ruining their businesses?  He eliminated non profitable units, isnt that the same as going from 914 to 420?  And, why, if the chain was profitable when Pillsbury bought the chain,  why did it have non profitable units after CAIN was put in charge?The Godfathers chain was purchased by Pillbury by default as it was a part of another company called diversified foods, and that company had burger king stores that pillsbury wanted.  Godfathers was a part of diversified and came with the deal.Pillsbury didnt put CAIN in charge of the burger king part of the deal, and instead put him in charge of Godfathers.  Soon afterwards, the chain was losing money, franchisees were not getting support from pillsbury and the lawsuits began.CAIN did in fact shut down 494 stores and put all those employees on the goverment unemployment lines.  By the time CAIN and his board put together investors to buy the chain from pillsbury, they were losing there ashes.  The chain was unable to secure loans for expansion or correction and private money had to be found.This is where he leaves the tracks.  After purchasing the chain in late 1988, CAIN remained as CEO until 1996 when he resigned at the request of the executive board.After he resigned, the chain grew back to 636 stores and showed a profit.    Here's some insight:As of Oct 18, 2011, PolitiFacts<a href="http://www.browncafe.com/forum/#_edn1" target="_blank">[1]</a> had checked out 19 statements by Herman Cain. It judged him telling the truth zero times, “mostly true” 3 times, “half truth” 4 times, “mostly false” 3 times,   “false” 7 times,  and “pants on fire” 2 times.” That’s 16 out of 19 half truths or worse, which means 84% of Cain’s statements have been judged half truths or worse.  Politifacts is obviously willing to call Cain out when he lies.This was six months before Pillsbury announced it was selling the company. Cain predicted Pillsbury would not sell the company and he claimed the “the segment is growing quickly.” Instead of talking about how tough the pizza business was, as the PolitiFact article claims, Cain was talking about how quickly the pizza business was growing.The PolitiFacts article is particularly clueless when it says, “Two years after Cain was named chief executive officer, Pillsbury decided to get out of the pizza business and sell Godfather’s. Cain and his management team decided to buy the chain in a leveraged buyout for an undisclosed sum.”First, Pillsbury did not decide to get out of the pizza business. It still continued to have its frozen pizza business. Second, the only reason that Pillsbury decided to sell Godfather’s Pizzas was because Cain had failed to deliver on his promise to turn the company around. After waiting two years, they stopped believing Cain’s Mosaic promises of a bright future just around the corner. They put Godfather’s Pizzas up for sale because he was continuing to lose money. This is from the Wall Street Journal of March 18[SUP]th[/SUP] 1988.Pillsbury Co. reported a $107.8 million loss for its third quarter ended Feb. 28, and disclosed it is negotiating to sell its 580 unit Godfather’s Pizza chain.The earnings report came after a second day of frenzied trading in Pillsbury stock, fueled by speculators and various unconfirmed takeover rumors.Pillsbury’s loss compares with earnings of $48.5 million, or 56 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue fell 2% in the latest period to $1.50 billion from $1.53 billion. The revenue decline came from Pillsbury’s restaurant business.The troubled food and restaurant concern had write-offs for restructuring in the quarter of $140.9 million, $50 million more than Minneapolis-based Pillsbury had said it expected to write off earlier this year.Pillsbury’s decision to sell Godfather’s is the latest move in a series of efforts to improve its restaurant group’s performance. In the latest quarter restaurants were responsible for pretax losses of $113.1 million. Pillsbury’s Steak & Ale and Bennigan’s chains also are considered by some analysts as candidates for the auction block.While the company didn’t indicate what price it hoped to receive for Godfather’s, Pillsbury paid nearly $400 million for the struggling chain in 1985.It was only when they were unable to find a buyer for the company that they finally sold it to Cain and his management group.  The purchase prize was not disclosed, but some original estimates of $30 million appear to have been accurate. It is hard to imagine that Cain just decided to buy the company. It is pretty clear that Cain was desperate. He was 42 years old and essentially being fired by Pillsbury. His record would show a major management failure in running Godfather’s. It is hard to see where he could have gotten a job with his eclectic background. He hadn’t worked in computer science for seven years, basically a lifetime in computers. As a manager, he had some success at Burger King, but a major failure at Godfather’s. Fast Food restaurants were in a slump generally and management positions were shrinking. Buying the company in a buy-out was the only option that he really had to keep himself off the unemployment line.In the two years that Cain managed Godfather’s Pizza for Pillsbury, 1986-1988, sales fell from $275 million to $242.5 million. The number of stores fell from 640 to 563. There is only one quarter during this time that there is any report of profits. On Oct 5, 1987, there is a report in Nation’s Restaurant’s News that Godfather’s “’moved solidly into the black,’ the company said.” There were no report after that of Godfather’s making a profit and Pillsbury put it up for sale five months later. In the two years that Cain managed Godfather’s Pizza for Pillsbury, 1986-1988, sales fell from $275 million to $242.5 million. The number of stores fell from 640 to 563. There is only one quarter during this time that there is any report of profits. On Oct 5, 1987, there is a report in Nation’s Restaurant’s News that Godfather’s “’moved solidly into the black,’ the company said.” There were no report after that of Godfather’s making a profit and Pillsbury put it up for sale five months later.PolitiFacts failed to indicate these important facts which would indicate how Cain did in his promise to turn the company around for Pillsbury. Two years before Cain took over, Godfather’s had fallen from third to fourth place in sales for U.S. Pizza Restaurants. Cain promised to bring it back to number three. When Pillsbury sold it to Cain and his management team, it had fallen from fourth to sixth place[iii]. Certainly no turnaround happened in the first two years that Cain took over. By the time he was forced to resign in 1995, Godfather’s had fallen further to eight place [iv].By selling the company to Cain for a fraction of what they had paid for it, Pillsbury was getting rid of both Godfather’s and Cain.An article published in Bloomberg Businessweek on June 6, 2011[v], the same week that PolitiFacts published its article, got it right. It noted that he closed 20 percent of the company’s 640 restaurants and fired 300 to 400 people. This excellent article by Tim Jones says, “He is a politician, just one who hasn’t held office. And like most politicians’ log cabin stories, Cain’s oft-told tale of how he rescued Godfather’s is kind to its hero and notable for what it leaves out.” He notes that Cain “has not released details of the company’s performance under his leadership” and ends by correctly stating:The bottom line: Though Cain says he would revive the economy as he did Godfather’s Pizza, it’s not clear the chain improved much when he was CEO.The facts point to the fact that PolitiFacts should have reported that Cain’s statement that Godfather’s was going bankrupt and he turned it around was mostly a lie, if not a complete lie.<a href="http://jayraskin.wordpress.com/2011/10/18/fact-checking-the-fact-checkers-herman-cain-and-godfather%E2%80%99s-pizza-part-3/" target="_blank">Fact Checking the Fact Checkers: Herman Cain and Godfather’s Pizza – Part 3 � Notes to Aphrodite</a>So trippy, you cant believe everything herman cain says.  Facts just dont support his claims.Peace.</blockquote>

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