International Growth, Nontraditional Expansion, Digital Enhancements, and Menu Innovation Set the Stage for the Year Ahead
TOLEDO, Ohio, March 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Marco’s Pizza, one of the nation’s fastest-growing pizza brands, kicks off 2026 with deliberate development plans following a year of strategic expansion and systemwide investment. In 2025, Marco’s opened more than 60 new stores and this year, it plans to surpass 80 new store openings while continuing to accelerate growth across new domestic markets, international territories, and nontraditional venues. Complementing its expansion, Marco’s is rolling out advanced digital tools, operational enhancements, and menu innovations, strengthening franchisee support and setting the stage for sustainable, long-term operations.
Notable Achievements in 2025
- Strategic U.S. Expansion: Marco’s entered New Jersey and signed a development agreement for New Mexico, expanding its national footprint and unlocking new growth markets.
- International Milestones: The brand celebrated anniversaries in Mexico and Puerto Rico while continuing to explore new international opportunities and growth across the Caribbean and LATAM regions.
- Nontraditional Development: Continued expansion into ghost kitchens and alternative real estate formats helped drive accessible and flexible growth opportunities.
- Leadership Growth: Marco’s strengthened its executive bench with key hires, including Brad Smith to VP of Franchise Growth, Bill Schaffler to CFO and Steve Kennedy to CMO, reinforcing the infrastructure needed to support continued expansion.
- Operational Efficiencies: As part of an ongoing initiative to streamline store-level operations, Marco’s identified strategic vendor relationships, resulting in significant supply chain cost-savings.
- Digital Experience Enhancements: The brand advanced its digital ecosystem to improve the guest journey and support franchisee operations, laying the groundwork for future innovation. Notably, these enhancements earned Marco’s an AVA Digital Gold Level Award for its Ordering Platform and Website – Redesign.
- Industry Recognition: Marco’s earned accolades from FRANdata – claiming the highest FUND Score among all QSR concepts and No. 1 in the pizza category, Entrepreneur – ranking No. 50 in the 2026 Franchise 500 ranking, Technomic – named America’s favorite pizza chainꝉ, QSR – named a best franchise deal, and Newsweek – earning a reader’s choice best pizza chain award – all reinforcing the brand’s strength.
Vision for 2026
Marco’s enters 2026 with a continued focus on scalable growth and franchisee support, targeting 80+ new store openings, expansion into new territories, and continued development across domestic and international markets.
“Marco’s momentum is driven by a commitment to thoughtful expansion and strong franchisee support,” said Gerardo Flores, Chief Development Officer of Marco’s Pizza. “As we look ahead, we remain focused on building the infrastructure, technology and innovation needed to support the next phase of growth.”
Key Initiatives on the Horizon
- Operations Center of Excellence: Marco’s is developing new initiatives designed to enhance systemwide training, operational consistency, and performance as the brand continues to scale.
- Next-Generation Digital Experience: Including an updated loyalty program and exploration of AI-powered ordering capabilities.
- Menu Innovation Pipeline: Marco’s will introduce new product innovation in 2026 under the culinary leadership of Chef Kathleen Kennedy.
- International & Nontraditional Growth: The brand will continue exploring new global markets, expanding across Mexico and the Caribbean, and growing nontraditional formats including ghost kitchens.
Franchise Opportunities
To further support accessibility and franchise expansion, Marco’s introduced the Franchise Development Royalty Incentive Program, designed to lower barriers for qualified multi-unit owners. With early-stage royalty incentives starting at 0%**, along with comprehensive support in real estate, construction, and operations, the program provides a streamlined, resource-rich path for franchisees to expand.
Prospects are taking note of the business opportunity, as Marco’s Franchise Disclosure Document reports $1.3M AUV for the top 25% of franchised stores in 2024.*
For more information Marco’s Pizza franchise opportunities, visit https://www.marcos.com/franchising/ or contact Brad Smith at bradsmith@marcos.com or 419-279-5795.
ABOUT MARCO’S PIZZA
Headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, Marco’s Pizza is one of the fastest-growing pizza brands 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 1,200 stores in 35 states with locations in Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and Mexico. Notably, Marco’s was recognized as America’s Favorite Restaurant in the Limited-Service Pizza category by Nation’s Restaurant News using Technomic Ignite Consumer 2025 dataꝉꝉ. Other recent accolades include being recognized by QSR as one of the “16 Best Franchise Deals for 2025”, ranking No. 50 on Entrepreneur Magazine’s 2026 “Franchise 500” ranking, earning a coveted spot as the only top 5 pizza chain to rank on Newsweek’s 2025 “America’s Best Customer Service” in pizza chains list, earning a spot on QSR’s Top 50, and being featured on Nation’s Restaurant News’ prestigious “Top 500” ranking.
*Based on average sales volume of the top performing 25% (or 239 units) of Marco’s Pizza Franchised Stores that were open during our 2024 fiscal year. Of the 955 Franchised Stores that were in operation for our entire 2024 fiscal year, 239 were included in the top 25% set and 40% obtained or surpassed the average sales volume. This information excludes (i) international locations (including Puerto Rico); (ii) Franchised Stores not open for the entire 52-week period in 2024; (iii) special venue and non-traditional franchised locations; and (iv) Franchised Stores that closed in 2024. See Item 19 of our 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document for additional information. Individual results may differ. There is no assurance that any franchisee will perform as well.
**The information provided in this article should not be construed as an offer to sell any Marco’s Pizza® franchises in, nor is any such communication directed to, the residents of any jurisdiction requiring registration of the franchise before it is offered and sold in that jurisdiction. Currently, the following states regulate the offer and sale of franchises: California, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. Marco’s Pizza® franchises will not be sold to any resident of such jurisdiction until the offering has been exempted from the requirements of, or duly registered in and declared effective by, such jurisdiction and the required franchise disclosure document (if applicable) has been delivered to the prospective franchisee before the sale in compliance with applicable law. Additionally, the participant must meet our financial, creditworthiness, and operational criteria to qualify for the incentive program and be approved by us to open each Store. If the franchisee is a corporation, partnership, limited liability company, or other legal entity, the qualifying participant must maintain at least 50% ownership in the entity, as well as the qualifying existing Stores, to qualify for this program, and the franchisee must comply with program requirements. In the event the participant fails at any time to meet the timelines to qualify for the applicable incentive program while developing a Store, the Store being developed and any remaining unopened Stores to be developed will pay the then-current standard Royalty Fee rate. See Marco’s Franchising’s Franchise Disclosure Document for more information. To qualify for the incentive program, the participant must sign a development agreement and open the stores within the following timeframes: 1st Store within 365 days of signing; 2nd Store within 6 months of 1st store opening; 3rd Store within 6 months of 2nd store opening; 4th Store within 6 months of 3rd store opening; 5th Store within 6 months of 4th store opening.
ꝉꝉAccording to Technomic’s 2025 America’s Favorite Restaurants data, Marco’s Pizza secured the top spot in the Limited-Service Pizza category with a 54.6% composite top-box rating, indicating the share of recent guests who gave the brand the highest possible rating for each of the guest experience attributes. Data for America’s Favorite Chains comes from Technomic Ignite Consumer, which collects information about how brands impact consumers and how consumers interact with those brands, via online surveys. See here for more information: www.technomic.com/ignite-consumer.
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SOURCE Marco’s Pizza
