Marco’s Pizza is targeting the Lone Star State for growth. With more than 40 franchise locations already open and operating throughout the region, the company has announced plans to open 127 additional locations through strategic franchise partnerships in the next four years.
The new franchise locations will create more than 2000 new jobs throughout the state of Texas.
New Marco's Pizza locations will open under the leadership of Justin Tarrant, Robert Pia and Akash Gupta. All are Area Representatives and multi-unit franchisees with a collective dozen years of Marco's Pizza experience. Tarrant oversees 13 locations in the Dallas/Fort Worth market, Pia owns and operates nine and oversees seven locations throughout southern Texas and Akash owns two thriving locations in Austin. Already working toward their expansion goals, several locations are in different stages in development, including locations in Tyler, Cibolo, Waco and Burleson all opening in the coming months.
"With an intimate knowledge of the Marco's Pizza brand and extensive experience in the restaurant industry, each development team in the state is well positioned to grow," said Tarrant. "Akash, Robert and I are all eager to find local business leaders to bring this growing concept to their town. With their help, pizza lovers throughout Texas will quickly find out that ours is unlike any other pizza franchise out there. Our product is hands-down the best quality and our customer service outmatches the competition."
Targeted development markets in Texas, which Tarrant, Pia and other Area Representatives are actively seeking franchise partners, include San Antonio, Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin and Beaumont. On the north side of the state, Tarrant notes that the DFW area can open an additional 45 locations, including four in Arlington, two in both Saginaw and Denton, and one location in Weatherford, Sulfur Springs, Greenville and Paris.
Mid-state, Pia states that San Antonio can accommodate 25 additional Marco's Pizza locations, Beaumont can open six, and Houston can open 40 additional stores in the next four years. Gupta states that Austin can open a total of 30 restaurants. With seven open in Austin and the surrounding suburbs currently, five new locations are on track to open in 2016 and six the next year, bringing the total to 18 Marco's Pizzas in the market by year end 2017. Strategic cities for the expansion include Killeen, San Marcos, Temple and Bryan College Station.
"In the past few years, prime real estate has become available in all of these booming markets, making it that much easier for potential multi-unit franchisees who would like to open locations grouped closely together," said Cameron Cummins, chief development officer at Marco's Pizza. "We are still at the ground floor of our development in the Lone Star State, making it an exciting expansion region for us. I am confident the team's ability to build the Marco's Pizza brand, growing our footprint throughout key markets across Texas."
As the only national franchise chain founded by a native Italian, Marco's Pizza has carved out a niche in the industry as the expert in authentic Italian pizza, known for its fresh never-frozen dough made daily on site, a proprietary cheese blend that is fresh never-frozen and a secret pizza sauce recipe. The 700-plus unit company is poised to reach 1,000 locations by 2017. Marco's Pizza continues to open an average of one new store every third day, more than doubling its size in less than five years.
