Marco's Pizza® Franchise Overview

About Marco's Pizza®

Marco's now spans 1,100 stores across 33 states with locations in Puerto Rico and the Bahamas. The brand is on track to rise in the ranks as Nation's Restaurant News Top 500 Report shows Marco's achieved the highest percent year-over-year sales change (+18.2%) when compared to the nation's top 4 pizza brands**, making Marco's the No. 5 pizza brand in systemwide sales in America.

With strong growth and performance, Marco's now sets its sights on becoming the No. 4 brand in pizza as it experienced a 12.8% increase in year-over-year Average Unit Volume (AUV), and the Top 50% of Marco's franchised stores generated $1,198,201 AUV for 2021***.

Marco's franchise expansion also continues to accelerate with more than 200 stores in various stages of development. Company leadership is prioritizing investments in enhancing the franchise development program, new technology, personnel, strategic vendor partnerships, multi-channel national advertising, and more - all with an eye on maximizing franchisee profits while meeting the needs of today's modern customers.

Marco's recently announced the investment of millions of dollars in technology innovations over the next few years designed to create business efficiencies, maximize order growth, and improve the customer experience. Areas of investment include AI-enabled voice-to-text ordering and automated promise times, integration with third-party delivery services, migrating to a 100% cloud-based order management system, plus testing automated kitchen innovations and new operational equipment.

In fact, Marco's Pizza is America's Most Loved and Most Trusted Pizza Brand, according to the 2019 Harris Poll EquiTrend® Study. Headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, Marco's Pizza is the fastest-growing pizza brand in the United States. Marco's was founded in 1978 by Italian-born Pasquale ("Pat") Giammarco and thrives to deliver a high-quality pizza experience, known for its dough made from scratch and its three fresh signature cheeses. The company has grown from its roots as a beloved Ohio brand to operate over 1,100 stores. Most recently, Marco's Pizza was ranked No. 2 in the Pizza category on Entrepreneur Magazine's 2022 "Franchise 500" ranking, and No. 4 in the Fastest Growing category on Restaurant Business' 2021 "Top 10 Fastest Growing Chains" ranking. Other recent accolades include a first-time presence on Newsweek's 2022 "America's Best Customer Service" in pizza chains list, ranked No. 42 on QSR's Top 50 and has been featured five consecutive years on Nation's Restaurant News' prestigious "Top 500" ranking.

*Marco's Pizza is the fastest-growing pizza brand based on year-over-year unit growth, according to 2021 NRN Top 500 U.S. Restaurant Ranking LSR Pizza Segment.
**Nation's Restaurant News partnered with Datassential and its Firefly data platform to provide an in-depth look at the performance across the Top 500 restaurant chains.
***Based on the Average Unit Volume of the top 50% of our Franchised Stores for fiscal year 2021. Based on fiscal year 2021, 146 of 389 Franchised Stores in the category (38%) met or exceeded this average. This information appears in Item 19 of our 2022 FDD - please refer to our FDD for complete information on financial performance. Results may differ. There is no assurance that any franchisee will perform as well.

Franchise History

Italian-born Pasquale "Pat" Giammarco came to America with his family when he was nine years old from Sulmona, Italy. His father had restaurant experience and he, too, wanted to make the kind of fresh, quality pizza he remembered from his childhood. In 1978, Giammarco founded Marco's Pizza and his Italian-quality pizzas quickly became a hit because he obsessed over the details and never cut corners. He grew his restaurant into a brand serving communities throughout Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio.

In the mid-2000s, it was Jack Butorac, a 40-year plus restaurant industry veteran, who saw the opportunity to take Marco's and catapult it to a 1,000-plus-store high-quality pizza franchise. He felt pizza lovers deserved something better and knew Marco's Pizza was what the market was missing. He became a consultant for Marco's in 2003 and purchased the franchise rights in 2004 at just over 120 stores.

Marco's is the only national pizza franchise founded by a native Italian. It has carved out a niche in the industry for high-quality pizza known for its dough made from scratch, sauce with freshly mixed herbs and spices, and three fresh signature cheeses.

*Based on the Average Unit Volume of the top 50% of our Franchised Stores for fiscal year 2021. Based on fiscal year 2021, 146 of 389 Franchised Stores in the category (38%) met or exceeded this average. This information appears in Item 19 of our 2022 FDD – please refer to our FDD for complete information on financial performance. Results may differ. There is no assurance that any franchisee will perform as well.