Marco’s Pizza ® Franchise Named Tony Libardi Executive Vice President of Operations
Franchise industry veteran brings leadership excellence to the pizza category
Marco’s Pizza ®, the nation’s fastest-growing pizza company, announced that Tony Libardi has joined us as Executive Vice President of Operations. An expert in the field with extensive experience in the food and restaurant industry, Libardi brings more than two decades of experience from nationally recognized brands to the Marco’s Pizza ® franchise team.
Tony’s exceptional professional and military experience has developed in him a deeply rooted passion and understanding of leadership that will drive results. Prior to joining Marco’s Pizza ®, Tony spent 10 years running a $1 billion division for Burger King, leading a restaurant portfolio of 750 locations with combined sales of approximately $900 million annually and more than $145 million in EBITDA as the vice president of company operations U.S. During his tenure, Burger King saw a 6.5 percent sales increase and a 35 percent restaurant profitability increase year over year in 2012. Tony’s primary responsibility was assembling and managing the 30-restaurant portfolio with locations in Dallas-Fort Worth, Birmingham, Atlanta and Miami.
Tony also ran the joint venture between Magic Johnson and Burger King, serving as the principal liaison in a huge marketing initiative.
“We are at a pivotal point in our growth phase, and the greatest advantage we have over our competition is our leadership and our people,” says Jack Butorac, CEO of Marco’s Pizza ®. “Tony’s record of success in growing businesses into highly profitable enterprises in a short period of time while exceeding expectations on people development and operational standards will benefit our brand tremendously as we continue on the fast track for growth.”
Because of our strong corporate backing and ability to take market share, our Ah!thentic Italian-style food standards and our people, the Marco’s Pizza ® franchise system took less than five years to more than double in size. As a result, Marco’s Pizza ® has received high praise from Entrepreneur magazine and AllBusiness.com, which ranked Marco’s in the top 10 Allstar franchise systems. Most recently, Marco’s Pizza ® ranked as No. 2 on the Nation’s Restaurant News’ second 100 top 10 newcomers.
“Great companies are defined by their market position, corporate structure, loyal customers, brand awareness and the quality of their products,” Tony says. “There’s a reason Marco’s Pizza ® franchise is the nation’s fastest-growing pizza company, and I’m excited to help Marco’s navigate to the next level of growth in delivering excellence.”
As the only national pizza franchise chain founded by a native Italian, Marco’s Pizza ® is handmade in the Italian tradition, using fresh, never-frozen cheeses, making the dough in stores daily and using only premium meats and vegetables. With 600+ locations open and more than 1,200 new franchise deals signed in 2014, we are on track to quadruple our store count in the coming five to seven years.
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