Marco’s Pizza targets expansion in Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico and the Cayman Islands
Marco’s Pizza, one of the nation’s fastest-growing pizza brands, plans to add more than 50 international locations by 2025 through strategic franchise partnerships — expanding upon the brand’s success in Puerto Rico and the Bahamas. Specific targets include Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico and the Cayman Islands.
Marco’s Pizza opened its first Puerto Rico location in 2015 and will open its 34th by the end of 2019. The brand’s success in Puerto Rico and the Bahamas has Marco’s looking seeking strategic partners to bring the brand to other parts of the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America.
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 open its 34th location there 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.”
International franchise opportunity
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.
As the only U.S. 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.
