Franchise Focus

Marco’s Pizza franchisee leads with passion, product, people

Marco's Pizza franchisee Robert Pina recently inked a deal for one of Marco's Pizza's biggest franchising agreements.

Photo: Marco's Pizza

April 17, 2025 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Editor, Networld Media Group

Franchising just comes naturally to some people. While it's a risk, a gamble for others, for Robert Pina it's just part of the game, of which he brings 40 years of experience to the table. Perhaps the most well-known of his brands are Subway and Wings and More. He read a trade journal story about Marco's Pizza hitting Austin, Texas, for the first time and chose to explore the opportunity.

He took his family to Austin for the weekend and got to the restaurant at opening. Marco's, it would seem, had a little bit of everything — pizzas sure, but also salads, cheesy breads and more.

Though the family had just eaten a large breakfast, they managed to eat everything ordered.

"The product was fantastic," Pina said in an interview. "I was sold after my first meal. I went back to Houston and started working on contacting Marco's."

That was 16 years ago. Today, Pina is the proud owner of 37 Marco's Pizza franchisees, located in Houston, Denver, Colorado Springs and Phoenix.

Pina said he lucked into a perfect location for his first Marco's Pizza and it was approved quickly. (It was the end cap of a church in an established neighborhood with plenty of exposure.) He also said Marco's makes it easy to open a franchise as long as the steps are followed.

"That's the beauty of a franchised system instead of doing your own 'Robert's Pizza'," Pina said. "It's already given to you as long as you follow the system, you have a pretty good chance at success."

Photo: Marco's Pizza

Standing out in a competitive market

Pina said it's the product that makes the brand stand out in cities already known for its great food.

"We use a three-cheese blend versus most people using mozzarella. We use cheese that is fresh, never frozen," Pina said. "All of our meats are bigger. We put more toppings on our pizzas and, No.1, is it's all about the dough. We make fresh dough every day at our stores unlike many of the other majors. All they do is a commissary and they ship their dough in in 'dough pucks.' We have our mixers in our stores and all the ingredients to make the dough, so it makes for a good base for our product."

Pina is quick to point out he is an area representative for Marco's Pizza, meaning he is not only a franchisee but also an ambassador for the brand in the Houston market.

"People come to me when they want to know about Marco's," he said. The brand has it set up to where there's a liaison for every aspect of Marco's business, from national television marketing down to local store marketing.

But as a franchisee, he recently inked one of the brand's largest area agreements to bring nearly 50 units to the Phoenix market by 2028.

"There's a lot of growth out in Phoenix," Pina said. "It's just a great city. I have traveled to Phoenix several times. I think that's it's got the population. To me, it's a lot like Houston — it's intercity, but then you've got your suburbs growing all around it, and it has incredible growth at this time. I've had my eye on it for several years."

Pina doesn't worry about growing too big too fast because "if I'm stepping on the gas a little too hard, I'll back off," he said. "That's just the way I operate."

Labor and food costs are the two metrics by which Pina tracks his success — they fluctuate on a daily basis and must be controlled consistently. "You succeed or fail on labor and food costs," Pina said.

His biggest responsibility day to day is growing the brand. In Houston and San Antonio, he enjoys recruiting and building a solid management team able to help his restaurants at the store level manage their profits and losses, advertising and to field any questions local store managers might have.

"My job is really overseeing the folks that we have, overseeing the franchisees … and more of the five-mile view," Pina said.

Photo: Marco's Pizza

Building a strong team

So how does Pina foster a positive working environment?

First, he'll admit it's a tough labor market and in this particular field, it's difficult to find employees, so hiring great managers becomes imperative to building that great team.

"We've found that the more you train them, the better you are to keeping them," Pina said. "You can't just throw somebody into a restaurant. If you don't really train them, they don't feel a part of the system, they don't feel a part of the group and we end up having a lot of turnover. Having what I call a family environment, keeping them close (and) keeping them trained and doing the best we can do to support them" is what creates a winning environment.

Pina said he's able to manage a good work-life balance by having great people around him with autonomy to make necessary decisions.

The most rewarding aspect of being a Marco's Pizza franchisee is the simple act of working with a great organization with great people.

"It's a lot of fun. Sometimes it's challenging, but it's a good ride," Pina said.

His advice to a fledgling Marco's Pizza franchisee?

"Being in the pizza industry is just in our DNA for the most part," Pina said, "and I think that when you choose Marco's you choose a system that is well built on a phenomenal product. That's No. 1. When I look at a franchise, the No. 1 factor that that I look for is what is the product like. Marco's just has the best product out there. Add that to the system that Marco's has built — and it's not fail proof, nothing is fail proof — but if you follow the system, you have a very good chance of being successful."

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.

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