Marco’s Pizza Franchise Review: Stu Field of Nashville
Franchisee finds ‘sweet spot’ at Marco’s Pizza Franchise
Stu Field knows his stuff when it comes to pizza.
He started out as a teenager working for $3.35 an hour, minimum wage at the time, at a Chuck E. Cheese in the Chicago area. Today, he’s a successful Marco’s franchisee and area representative in the Nashville suburb of Franklin.
Along the way, Stu worked his way up through management at Chuck E. Cheese, worked for Little Caesars for 15 years in a variety of positions, took a break from pizza with stints at Einstein Bros. Bagels and Dunkin’ Brands and then joined Marco’s in 2011. Some of the systems in use at Stu’s Franklin location are not typical of a Marco’s franchise; he took over the space from a previous pizza vendor and was able to purchase a lot of the equipment, including some state-of-the-art pizza delivery bags, at a discounted rate with special permission from Marco’s. We asked Stu to share his Marco’s experience.
How did you learn about Marco’s? This opportunity became available to me through Jim Strachan, the vice president of operations. I worked with Jim at Little Caesars, and I was already familiar with Marco’s from living in Michigan.
What did you like about Marco’s on first glance? I need to take pride in what I do. Handing the product across the counter, it’s got to be something I’m proud of putting my name behind. When you look at other pizza franchises, not that they’re horrible, they just don’t have the quality. That’s what attracted me to Marco’s — the quality. They’re not that different operations-wise from Papa John’s or Domino’s. I think this product, like a lot of things, can easily be commoditized. Having quality that sets it apart was important.
What would a customer notice first about Marco’s? The fact that we make the dough in the store every day. From scratch. You can taste the difference. Some companies get their stuff from a commissary; once or twice a week they get deliveries. There’s times with other pizza brands where you’re probably eating dough from four or five days ago. Ideally, dough would sit eight to 24 hours and then rise. The dough we make today has a 60-hour shelf life. We forecast so we’re always able to make sure it’s fresh.
When we first opened, we had 60 to 75 unsolicited calls to the store telling us how great the product was. In my 25-30 years in this business, that just does not happen. When you’re a new business owner and on the third day a kid answers the phone and says somebody wants to talk to the manager, you just think, oh no, I’ve screwed something up. You take the walk of shame. You get on the phone: “Hi, I’m Stu, I’m the owner.” And then the person says, “I LOVE your pizza.” That was completely unsolicited. It makes you feel good about what you’re doing.
What’s trending with the delivery pizza segment? I don’t think habits are changing. It’s a convenience for a lot of customers. About 40% to 45% of our transactions are for delivery. I think technology has improved a lot to get pizza to the door. The system we have here is not an approved Marco’s system, but they allowed us to keep it. The hot bag is like induction cooking. They plug in when they’re waiting and it keeps the pizza warm. It’s better; it should be a hotter, fresher-tasting pizza that isn’t soggy. Delivery time varies, but we try to keep it at about 10 minutes. A lot of people think we just draw a three-mile ring around the store, but we use mapping technology. Our goal is to be out the door in 19 minutes or less, and if we have a 10-minute drive time, we can be there in about 30 minutes. We don’t guarantee it, but we hit it about 75% of the time. Our goal is to get somebody a pizza in a half an hour. From a customer perspective, you have to be honest and tell them what it is. If it’s going to be an hour, you tell them an hour so they can make a decision. They can either come pick it up in 20 minutes or, I hate to say it, get their pizza from someone else. You can always recover from the truth.
How do you make sure the Marco’s experience is better than the typical competitor experience? I think for the most part these days if you don’t piss people off, you’re so much better than everybody else. We just try and hire good people with good common sense that are courteous. It’s challenging, though. Probably an objection everybody has is dealing with delivery people getting in wrecks and finding delivery drivers. We have systems in place — we check motor vehicle records before we hire anybody — they can’t have any problems within the last two years. There’s a list of checkpoints. It’s really important. When the driver leaves the store, part of our culture is we tell the driver to buckle up and drive safe, we don’t say drive fast and get that pizza there as fast as you can. That’s why it’s so important we tell people the right delivery times over the phone.
How does store staffing affect your business? I think we hire better people. In the store we have one high school kid. My average employee is 35 to 40 years old; certainly a benefit of this economy. This is a great second job for a lot of people, especially delivery drivers. We have 18-20 people in stores. Turnover comes and goes. High turnover 100% is not unusual in the restaurant industry. It helps to make sure you hire the right people in the first place.
Would you recommend a Marco’s franchise to someone else? I would recommend it. I think it’s important that somebody have some industry experience; it doesn’t have to be pizza, but it really needs to be food service. It’s very different than so many other careers. When you walk into a well-run establishment, it looks like it would be easy to do, but it really isn’t.
What’s the Marco’s support system like for franchisees? With the area representative model, a lot of support comes from the AR. When I need support, then I can call Marco’s. If a new franchisee were to come into this area, they would go through six weeks of in-store training. They would do all the jobs from delivery to making the pizzas. Most of the ARs also own stores, so it’s kind of a matter of “what’s good for the goose.” When we’re in our markets, if my franchisees aren’t successful, then I’m not successful.
To the franchisees in this area, I’m the franchisor. I would take them through the selection process, answer questions they have, assist them in every step from finding a site to finding contractors to finding architects to ordering equipment and setting up store.
What’s your favorite thing about being a franchisee? I’m a people person. I like to interact with the employees; I like to interact with the customers. I have a nurturing side to me. I like to give them not only a paycheck but maybe some life guidance. Little things like that.
Is it better to buy multiple units than just one? It really depends on the individual. With one store, you kind of buy yourself a job. Ideally, I would like people to be able to do 3-5 stores. At that point, you’re an area supervisor and you get the economies of scale. If someone is looking for a multi-unit deal, it’s a green field right now with Marco’s. If you want to open multiple stores with some of the Big Four brands right now, you can’t. We have brand new territories that are open wide. Right now you can pick the 3-4 locations you want to be in. If someone came to me and said, “I want to do five stores,” it would be easy to manage, easy to market. That’s not available in other chains.
Why is a pizza franchise a better investment as opposed to other food concepts? It’s obviously a proven commodity. It’s a $40 billion a year industry. It goes across all demographics; everybody eats pizza. And everybody’s always looking for a good pizza place. The challenge is trying to create a brand that appeals to everybody. If you make it too spicy or too sweet, you’ll turn off a certain demographic. At Marco’s, they’ve found the sweet spot.
Interested in learning more about becoming a Marco’s franchisee? We’re looking for people who are passionate, dedicated to success, have business management experience and only want to associate with a brand they can always be proud of. Please fill out the form at right to download our free franchise report or call 1-800-262-7267. We’d love to hear from you!
