America’s Most Loved Pizza Brand Announces International Expansion Plans

TOLEDO, OH – Marco’s Pizza, one of the nation’s fastest-growing pizza brands, plans to expand beyond Puerto Rico and the Bahamas further into the Caribbean, Mexico and Latin America. The pizza brand aims to add more than 50 international locations by 2025 through strategic franchise partnerships. Specific targets include Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the Cayman Islands.

Marco’s Pizza sees tremendous growth potential in Latin America, based on its experience in Puerto Rico, where it opened its first location in 2015. Marco’s Pizza is projected to double its Puerto Rico footprint as it expands to 19 locations by the end of 2019.

“Marco’s Pizza has experienced amazing success in Puerto Rico, and we expect to build upon this, expanding our footprint throughout the Caribbean and Latin America,” said Marco’s Chief Development Officer Ron Stilwell. “Marco’s is an organization rich in heritage and authenticity, and we pride ourselves on delivering a high-quality experience with a high-quality product.”

With an impressive $883,073 average unit volume*, Marco’s Pizza is actively seeking strategic franchise partnerships to help grow its footprint in Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico and the Cayman Islands.

Earlier this year, Marco’s Pizza was named Most Loved and Most Trusted Pizza Brand, according to the 2019 Harris Poll EquiTrend® Study. In the last year, Marco’s Pizza brand equity – a combination of familiarity, quality and purchase consideration – increased 10 percentage points, according to the study. Its brand equity scored higher than all other pizza restaurant brands, including Domino’s, Pizza Hut, Little Caesars and Papa John’s. This comes in a year of speedy growth for the franchise brand as it rapidly approaches 1,000 locations.

Opening a new store every three and a half days on average, Marco’s Pizza is committed to increasing its presence internationally by late 2020. As the only national pizza franchise chain founded by a native Italian, Marco’s Pizza has carved out a niche in the industry for authentic Italian quality pizza, known for its fresh dough made daily onsite, a proprietary cheese blend that is fresh, never-frozen, and a secret original pizza sauce recipe from its founder Pat Giammarco.

*Reflects average AUV for the 299 highest earning Traditional Franchised Stores (out of a total of 598 Traditional Franchised Stores) that operated for the full 52 weeks of our fiscal year ending December 30, 2018. Of these 299 stores, 112 (or 37%) reported revenues that met or surpassed $883,073. Your results may differ. See Item 19 of our Franchise Disclosure Document for the definition of “Traditional Franchised Stores” and other information.

ABOUT MARCO’S PIZZA

Headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, Marco’s Pizza is one of the fastest-growing pizza companies in the United States. Marco’s was founded in 1978 by Italian-born Pasquale (“Pat”) Giammarco and thrives by making authentic Italian quality pizza with fresh ingredients. The company has grown from its roots as a beloved Ohio brand to operate 900 plus stores in over 34 states with locations in Puerto Rico and the Bahamas. Most recently, Marco’s Pizza was ranked No. 4 in Forbes “Best Franchises to Buy” 2019 Study/Medium Investment, and No. 39 on Entrepreneur’s 2019 Franchise 500 ranking. Other recent accolades include ranking No. 2 on Entrepreneur’s 2018 Top 200 Food and Restaurant Franchises in the pizza segment, and No. 8 on the Military Times Best: Franchises 2018 list.

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