The Untold Truth Of Marco's Pizza

Nobody does pizza better than the Italians. One of the best examples of this is pizza brand Marco's, a brand that has been catering to its pizza loving customers since 1978. Marco's claims to be one of the most rapidly expanding pizza brands in the country and is particularly proud of its commitment to serving authentic Italian pizzas. The restaurant's story began back in 1978 when an Italian immigrant called Pasquale "Pat" Giammarco founded the company (via QSR.)

His authentic ingredients that paid a tribute to his Italian roots were instantly popular among his customers and the brand rapidly expanded across Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. As a description on the brand's website points out, it's always been about sticking to fresh ingredients for Gimmarco and is "about making something you'd be proud to serve to your mother." Plus, the brand's founder has always been committed to the entire process associated with serving high-quality pizza."Besides the freshness and the quality, there's a bit of an art to making sure it's prepared properly, baked properly, packaged properly and serviced properly," he once explained. "When you put it all together, that's why we beat our competitors. You can't just lower your prices."

Gimmarco did something right when he founded Marco's Pizza because by 2004, he'd already established around 112 Marco's Pizza outlets across the country. But wait: the story gets even more interesting from here.

As outlined by QSR, Jack Butorac the CEO of Marco's Franchising really propelled the brand forward in the 2000s when he cracked the code that would help Marco's become bigger and better over the years. He took charge of the company's franchise rights in 2004 and worked on its growth by getting experienced managers together and figuring out a franchising plan for the brand.

When the company crossed 1,000 stores this year, Butorac said the experience has been incredible. "Watching this company grow from our roots in Ohio to a beloved pizza brand across the country has been nothing short of remarkable," he said. "We have the best quality product in the industry, a tremendous leadership team, a group of exceptionally dedicated franchise partners and hard-working team members. As all these factors come together, we become an unstoppable force."

Marco's Pizza maintains close ties with its immigrant roots. In fact, its 1,000th store in Kissimmee, Florida belongs to immigrant entrepreneurs who believed in Marco's primo pizza style and decided to invest in it. The brand is planning to open 81 new outlets soon and remains the only pizza company across the U.S. that was started by a native Italian, according to the QSR article. Impressive, eh?