Nation’s Fastest-Growing Pizza Brand* Adds Five Decades of Expertise to Development Team, Plans Next 1,000 Units
To support Marco’s Pizza and its unparalleled growth trajectory, the nation’s fastest-growing pizza brand* announces the appointment of David Gladstone – VP of Construction and Paul Williams – VP of Real Estate. Collectively, they bring more than five decades of experience to the development team led by recently appointed Chief Development Officer Gerardo Flores. Under new leadership, Marco’s is refining its franchise development program by sophistically streamlining the process and driving strategic expansion.
With a 30-plus year track record of working in restaurant development, Gladstone has held various roles in real estate, construction, and procurement for Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii, Starbucks, Einstein Bros. Bagels, Focus Brands, Noodles & Company, Jamba Juice, and Quiznos. As he steps into this new role, he will work hand-in-hand with his team to support franchisees through their site selection and construction process, providing start-to-finish guidance and management of the construction process to ensure new Marco’s Pizza stores are built in an efficient and timely manner.
Williams is an accomplished real estate professional with extensive experience in restaurant and retail real estate. He has previously served as Director of Real Estate for Jersey Mike’s Subs, Real Estate Manager at Jack in the Box, Inc., and Development Manager for Dunkin’ Brands. His knowledge and background with these fast-growth franchise brands aligns with Marco’s vision for nationwide growth as it plots its next 1,000 units.
Marco’s currently spans 1,100-plus stores across 33 states with locations in Puerto Rico and the Bahamas. Franchise expansion continues to accelerate with more than 200 stores in various stages of development with more than 350 agreements signed – all while achieving record-breaking performance, surpassing $1B in annual systemwide sales.
“David and Paul are wonderful additions to our exceptional development team and great assets to our current and future franchisees,” said Flores. “Their extensive experience and trusted status within the franchise industry make them an ideal fit for our sophisticated approach to franchise development. As we look to Marco’s next era of growth, we’re expanding our teams at each level – sales, real estate, construction, etc. – with top line talent like David and Paul. From there, our internal teams will sync up and create efficiency through process protocols that will deliver brilliant results.”
Marco’s is on track to rise in the ranks as Nation’s Restaurant News Top 500 Report shows the brand achieved the highest percent year-over-year sales change (+18.2%) when compared to the nation’s top 4 pizza brands**, making Marco’s the No. 5 pizza brand in systemwide sales in America. With strong growth and performance, Marco’s now sets its sights on becoming the No. 4 brand in pizza as it experienced a 12.8% increase in year-over-year Average Unit Volume (AUV), and the Top 50% of Marco’s franchised stores generated $1,198,201 AUV for 2021***.
“Not only are we experiencing strong performance, but our franchise development pipeline remains robust and healthy,” said Tony Libardi, Co-CEO & president of Marco’s Pizza. “As we continue to grow with muti-unit franchisees and expand our brand footprint, we’re committed to providing a full development support system, including technology and tools to help identify the right territories for expansion plus expertise in financing, real estate, construction management, and field operations. It all starts with the right team, and I’m confident we have the right players to catapult Marco’s into its next phase of rapid growth.”
For more information on Marco’s Pizza franchise opportunities, visit https://www.marcos.com/franchising/ or call 866-731-8209 to speak with Shannon Iverson, Vice President of Franchise Sales.
*Marco’s Pizza is the fastest-growing pizza brand based on year-over-year unit growth, according to 2021 NRN Top 500 U.S. Restaurant Ranking LSR Pizza Segment.
**Nation’s Restaurant News partnered with Datassential and its Firefly data platform to provide an in-depth look at the performance across the Top 500 restaurant chains.
***Based on the Average Unit Volume of the top 50% of our Franchised Stores for fiscal year 2021. Based on fiscal year 2021, 146 of 389 Franchised Stores in the category (38%) met or exceeded this average. This information appears in Item 19 of our 2022 FDD – please refer to our FDD for complete information on financial performance. Results may differ. There is no assurance that any franchisee will perform as well.
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