Marco’s Pizza franchise is the only restaurant chain in the nation chosen by American Restaurant Association to develop industry forecasting tool
Marco’s Pizza® franchise is the only restaurant franchise in the nation chosen by the American Restaurant Association — a firm that measures the economics of food commodities — to collaborate on a cutting-edge cost predicting tool called The Marco’s Pizza Food Costs Forecaster.
Marco’s Pizza prides itself on making the best delivery pizza money can buy, and our growth is testament to our devoted fans nationwide. Marco’s Pizza is handmade in the Italian tradition, using fresh, never-frozen cheeses, making the dough in stores daily and using only premium meats and vegetables. Founded in Toledo in 1978, Marco’s is the only Top 20 pizza chain begun by a native Italian. Our pizza franchise has enjoyed tremendous growth in recent years and is on pace to have 930 restaurants open by the end of 2017.
“It’s truly been an honor to work hand-in-hand with the American Restaurant Association to help develop this forecasting tool. The knowledge and data that we can put to work for our franchisees is extremely beneficial from a cost savings, as well as a marketing perspective,” says Marco’s Vice President of Purchasing Don Vlcek. “We can look at market prices for all of our ingredients, from paper to pepperoni, and determine what the costs of these products will be from a month out to 18 months out.”
Marco’s Pizza franchise tool helps franchisees save on food costs
The Marco’s Pizza Food Costs Forecaster tool is just another way our pizza chain, one of the fastest growing in the nation, stands out. The tool helps Marco’s franchisees take advantage of lower food costs, which can fluctuate greatly throughout the year, than other franchises might be able to secure. The forecasts help franchisees as they plan out their promotions calendar, guiding them to choose the most cost effective products. For example, if the cost of pepperoni is forecasted to rise, franchisees will know not to offer specials on Marco’s delicious Pepperoni Magnifico.
“Before we implemented this tool, stores could choose to market something that, to the best of their knowledge, looked to be stable in price that could wind up increasing. Even just a small 5 to 6 percent increase in price is a big factor when it comes to food costs,” Don says. Don presents timely information about upcoming food forecasts as part of Marco’s monthly State of the Chain report to franchisees on departmental news.
Marketing department uses tool to plan limited time offer campaigns and more
Not only is The Marco’s Pizza Food Costs Forecaster great at predicting costs on current menu items, but it is also incredibly useful for our marketing and culinary teams as they formulate new recipes and limited time offers (LTOs). Marco’s utilizes the data from The Marco’s Pizza Food Costs Forecaster for a marketing portal used by the culinary and marketing teams to predict costs on new recipes and LTOs.
“Once an LTO is tested by consumers, we can then use the tool to build out projected costs,” Don says. “Our marketing and culinary teams can plus in the ingredients of any pizza recipe they dream up and analyze it from a cost factor.”
Learn more about Marco’s Pizza
For in-depth details about the Marco’s Pizza franchise opportunity, download our free franchise report. You can also learn more by visiting our research pages.
