Leading Pizza Franchise Strategically Invests Millions in Technology & Innovation on Path to Become No. 4 Brand in Pizza

Marco's Pizza, one of the nation's fastest-growing pizza brands, unveils a major project to accelerate its digital capabilities and drive growth. The brand's strategic investments in technology and innovation center around migrating to a 100% cloud-based proprietary technology platform - Marco's Order Management System (MOMS).

This platform is designed to improve the customer experience as well as simplify operations for the franchisees and store team members. Testing is currently underway with plans to roll out first into all company-operated stores by year-end, with franchise locations to follow in 2023. The fully integrated system supports payment processing and the point-of-sale (POS) system, with integrated conversational ordering, labor scheduling, inventory management, and a cloud-based reporting dashboard with centralized data management capabilities. 

By housing its own data, the system can also enable all sorts of applications both now and in the future, allowing Marco's to respond to rapid digital change. Marco's can pivot and plug in additional technology features for customers as they become available, such as:

• Ordering from virtual assistants such as Alexa, Siri, and Google
• Remote kiosk ordering
• GPS pinpointed delivery
• Instant ordering via social media
• Automotive app integration such as Apple CarPlay

"This is a truly remarkable project and we see immense value in the ROI of this endeavor, which many QSR brands have not pursued due to its massive undertaking," said Rick Stanbridge, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Marco's Pizza. "We've been building upon strong platforms and adding exceptional additions and functionality that will be a benefit to both our franchisees and customers as we prepare for the future."

By owning and operating the customized cloud technology platform, Marco's can reduce the need for middleware - plus it will be a device-agnostic system, providing a huge savings to franchisees. The purposefully built, fully-integrated solution is easy to deploy and efficient to manage with essential features and functions that will help franchisees run their business more efficiently. When franchisees convert to this platform, Marco's can digitally monitor the POS system and dashboards via a network operations system that functions as a command center. This gives Marco's access to every digital device – customer facing or back of the house.

With new digital capabilities driving growth, Marco's is equipped with a roadmap to challenge the competition, fueling its long-term strong growth and performance.

"Our brand is committed to investing millions of dollars in technology and innovation that benefits our franchisees' business operations and improves our customer experience – the Marco's Order Management System (MOMS) does just that," said Tony Libardi, Co-CEO & President of Marco's Pizza. "The work Rick and his team are doing is world-class. By investing in creative technology solutions, we're able to accelerate Marco's digitalization and allow our brand to respond to the increasing pace of digital change. With an eye on the future and becoming the No. 4 brand in pizza, this is exactly the type of innovation that will help get us there."

The Marco's Order Management System is one of many projects Marco's is embarking on after announcing the investment of millions of dollars in technology innovations through the next few years. Such projects include its recently announced voice-to-text initiative, the continued adoption of third-party delivery, utilizing AI for generating automated promise times, vetting and testing automated kitchen innovations, ghost kitchens, and new operational equipment.

Marco's is on track to reach $1B in annual systemwide sales in 2022. As a result, eager and sophisticated entrepreneurs and multi-unit operators are flocking to the franchise opportunity.

The brand continues to grow at a rapid pace, setting a development goal of 1,500 units open by the end of 2023. According to FRANdata, a leading research and advisory firm that analyzes the franchise market, Marco's 2021 FUND Score is in the top 1% of all evaluated franchise systems and is among the top three scores for all QSR brands. Marco's experienced an 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*.

For more information on Marco's Pizza franchise opportunities, visit https://www.marcos.com/franchising/ or call 866-731-8209.

ABOUT MARCO'S PIZZA
Marco's Pizza is America's Most Loved and Most Trusted Pizza Brand, according to the 2019 Harris Poll EquiTrend® Study. 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 1,000 stores in 34 states with locations in Puerto Rico and the Bahamas. Most recently, Marco's Pizza was ranked No. 2 in the Pizza category on Entrepreneur Magazine's 2022 "Franchise 500" ranking, and No. 4 in the Fastest Growing category on Restaurant Business' 2021 "Top 10 Fastest Growing Chains" ranking. Other recent accolades include a first-time presence on Newsweek's 2022 "America's Best Customer Service" in pizza chains list, ranked No. 42 on QSR's Top 50 and has been featured five consecutive years on Nation's Restaurant News' prestigious "Top 500" ranking.

*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.