Franchise Focus
He thought he was done with pizza — until Marco’s pulled him back in
After semi-retiring from a successful U.K .pizza empire, Pete Hiles was so impressed by the quality of Marco's Pizza that he was inspired to jump back into the business and rapidly expanded to 14 franchise stores in Florida.
October 30, 2025 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Editor, Networld Media Group
"Damn! I've been making the wrong pizza for 25 years." A single bite of a meat lover's pie was all it took to pull Pete Hiles out of semi-retirement and relaunch his already successful career in the restaurant industry.
Hiles is no stranger to the pizza game, having built a 20-store empire for a popular brand across the U.K. — a challenging feat that, he recalled, even required teaching British people how to eat pizza after they once dismissed it as "cheese on toast." But after moving to Florida and tasting the quality of a Marco's Pizza franchise, Hiles found a passion for the business he hadn't known was missing, quickly getting involved and becoming an "idiot for growth" as he rapidly expanded to 14 stores across the state.
"I really enjoyed the pizza business," Hiles said in a phone interview with Pizza Marketplace. "The pizza was struggling when we first went over there. We had to teach British people how to eat pizza. Believe it or not, they didn't understand it until they started to travel to the Mediterranean and America what pizza was all about. They used to call it cheese on toast!"
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Pete Hiles. Photo: Marco's Pizza |
When he came to America, he was semi-retired from the pizza business and got into gift shops. He traveled to Georgia, and a friend told him to check out Marco's Pizza as a possible investment. He declined, saying he was retired from the pizza business, but visited his friend's Marco's Pizza franchise. His friend went into the kitchen and made Hiles his favorite pizza, a meat lover's, took him to the kitchen and showed him how Marco's makes dough every day using its own filtered water, cut vegetables and prepares meats on site.
Marco's did things like Hiles would see on his trips to Italy — like the dough and ingredient prep in-house in the morning to ready for the night business, so Hiles didn't need much persuasion to join as a franchisee.
In 2017, he found a site and in September of 2018 he opened in an Orlando, Florida, suburb.
"I'm an idiot for growth," Hiles said. "We're at store 14 now. … Growth, if you control it and you've got the right backing, you can really do well in these kinds of franchise systems."
All 14 of his stores are in Florida, and he limits the area so he can travel to each one easily. His territory is Ocala to St. Cloud. He considered various parts of the country, but said Florida is a nice place to live with its sunshine and demographics.
Getting off the ground
Hiles said finding a good site was challenging for his first store, and that the first store is usually the most difficult.
"If you don't have a good site, you're starting on a weakness, really," he said. "You've got to have the right product, and obviously the right people and the support from the franchisor and the area representatives. Once we found a good site, then it was down to building to spec with Marco's and then getting into the local market."
Local store marketing and getting to know Marco's neighbors and business contacts are important to Hiles, who said getting involved in schools and local charities was imperative to his stores' successes.
Hiles said his wife, Beverly, is great at local store marketing and has no fear "contacting anyone about anything," Hiles said. "She's always out there contacting schools (and) businesses." Soon, businesses and non-profits came to Hiles for help.
At the corporate level, the brand does television advertising, and Hiles said he has experimented with radio, flyers and box toppers at the store level.
"There's no silver bullet," he said. "There isn't one thing you can do."
Hiles brings over to the second store employees that have been training at the first unit, which is why he likes his Marco's Pizza stores to be close to one another because it's easier to cross utilize employees. Today, he employees 200 Marco's team members.
"All of our employees come from the local community," Hile said. "The all probably live within 20 to 30 minutes of each store, and they themselves bring in contacts."
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Photo: Marco's Pizza |
Aligning with the company's culture
Hiles said standard operating procedures ensure his 14 Marco's Pizza units align with corporate culture. For example, there are 40 pepperonis on a large pizza. Ensuring standardization, that employees are properly trained, and that training is monitored is imperative, whether it's a slow time or a busy Friday or Saturday night.
"You have to have consistency in training," Hiles said, added that he, his district managers and area trainers all take responsibility for proper training. Corporate area representatives do audits of stores to ensure consistency of the brand.
In his first store, Hiles interviewed employees himself, including the important role of general manager. He said he looked for the right qualities of attitude, empathy and the emotional quotient of how to deal with people. The ability to learn quickly and follow instructions was imperative to all his employees. Second and third store managers usually come from the first store. He's got district managers who began as delivery drivers seven years ago.
"I try to grow my people," Hiles said. "Very rarely do I go outside for general managers. They normally come up the ranks, start as an insider, perhaps as a shift leader and become an assistant (manager). So, they come drenched in the culture."
Communication is also important to Hiles. His stores use a sophisticated app that allows him to talk personally to all 200 employees or individual groups. His inner circle of general managers gets more information than anyone else, Hiles explained, including some that are confidential.
In the future
Hiles' plan is to get to 20 Marco's Pizza stores.
"You have to have a whole team, literally a village, behind you to get into a franchise," he said.
"Do the due diligence on that brand. Visit physical locations. Go in as a mystery customer and see how they treat you. See if they're not in uniform, if they don't have badges, if they're not wearing their aprons, if they're not polite as soon as you come through the door. We are trained and should say 'Hey! Welcome to Marco's Pizza!'"
About Mandy Wolf Detwiler
Mandy Wolf Detwiler is the managing editor at Networld Media Group and the site editor for PizzaMarketplace.com and QSRweb.com. She has more than 20 years’ experience covering food, people and places.
An award-winning print journalist, Mandy brings more than 20 years’ experience to Networld Media Group. She has spent nearly two decades covering the pizza industry, from independent pizzerias to multi-unit chains and every size business in between. Mandy has been featured on the Food Network and has won numerous awards for her coverage of the restaurant industry. She has an insatiable appetite for learning, and can tell you where to find the best slices in the country after spending 15 years traveling and eating pizza for a living.
