Marco’s Pizza ® Franchise Review: What Makes Marco’s Unique?

Posted Mar 17th, 2015

Commitment to quality, growth strategy lead to success for franchisees

Marcos pizza franchise team members — Unlike competing pizza chains that have saturated their markets, Marco’s pizza franchise still has prime locations available across the country.

Some large pizza chains have saturated their markets with tens of thousands of stores, and they serve pizza that tastes like it came off an assembly line. Not Marco’s Pizza ®. We opened our 500th store in 2014 and still have prime locations available in cities and suburbs across the country. And our commitment to serving only the best-tasting, authentic Italian pizza keeps our customers coming back and makes our franchisees successful.

Marco’s is an amazing opportunity for multi-unit franchisees, says DJ Patel, who came to Marco’s from Pizza Hut in 2011 because of the quality pizza and the opportunity to develop more Marco’s stores. Today he is a multi-unit owner in Atlanta and is pursuing plans to open 400 stores in India. DJ oversees 40 Marco’s Pizza ® units in Georgia, Maryland, Washington D.C. and Virginia.

“There is plenty of room to grow all over the U.S.,” DJ says. “Marco’s isn’t yet known in every single household, and that presents an opportunity.”

“Marco’s gives me the opportunity to show franchisees what’s possible,” DJ adds. “It’s a lot easier for me to convince somebody to do what I’m doing if I’ve hit a home run with it. I have multiple examples of success now. I have been very successful not only finding but developing franchisees and in helping single franchise owners grow into multiple franchise owners.”

Marcos pizza franchise — Some pizza chains may cut corners with their ingredients, but Marco’s always uses cheeses that are never frozen, veggies chopped in-store daily, dough made fresh daily and sauce made from tomatoes grow specially for us.

The enthusiasm of DJ and franchisees like Matt Baker in the Cleveland, Ohio, area has made Marco’s the fastest-growing pizza franchise in the United States. Matt owns Marco’s Pizza ® franchises in Stow, Cuyahoga Falls and Akron. He joined Marco’s at 17 and has been a franchisee for 27 years.

Matt, who is also an Area Representative for Marco’s Pizza ®, sees potential for even more Marco’s in his district. After all these years, Matt is still impressed by Marco’s value and quality. He says the key is the superior quality and freshness of our ingredients.

“We use a fresh blend of three cheeses, never frozen,” he says. “Our dough is made on site daily. The sauce is made daily, with a special secret spice recipe. We have people that just grow Marco’s tomatoes.”

Another key to Marco’s success is our use of proven systems. That makes Marco’s Pizza ® franchise ownership especially appealing to military veterans, says Joe Walker, who served two tours of duty in Iraq with the U.S. Army and today is a Marco’s Pizza ® franchise owner in North and South Carolina.

After leaving the military in 2008, Joe spent two years in commercial real estate before becoming a multi-unit Marco’s Pizza ® franchise owner. His store at 2305 S. College Road in Wilmington, North Carolina, became Marco’s 500th location, an important milestone on our trajectory to reach the 1,000-store mark by the end of 2016.

Joe sees similarities between the military and Marco’s approach to franchising — especially the use of proven systems, the teamwork and the commitment to quality that help ensure success and profitability.

“Marcos resonated with me at first … because of the absolute adherence to all operational standards expected of all of its franchisees,” he says. “This brand creates the platform to launch the aggressive growth that any investor seeks in an investment vessel. I have not been disappointed.”

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