Scalability, quality, neighborhood friendly brand motivates couple to open fifth restaurant
Marco’s Pizza® franchisees and husband-and-wife team Josh and Stephanie Holdinghausen were spotlighted recently in the Argus Leader, the newspaper in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, about their journey to owning five, soon to be six, local Marco’s Pizza locations.
Josh and Stephanie Holdinghausen opened their fifth Marco’s Pizza in Brandon, South Dakota, just in time for the busy holiday season. The couple already owns and operates two stores each in both Rapid City and Sioux Falls with plans for another store in Sioux Falls opening near a local high school.
“We want to be able to deliver the best-quality product the quickest that we can,” Josh Holdinghausen says in the article. “We’re definitely neighborhood-friendly, and we want to make it easy for people to come and pick up a pizza.”
Josh fell in love with the Marco’s Pizza concept in 2012 while attending a multi-unit restaurant convention in Las Vegas, and the couple opened their first store in 2013.
No stranger to the restaurant industry, Josh, 32, began working in the business as a teenager, eventually working his way up to operating several Golden Corral buffets.
Brandon. South Dakota, is an ideal fit for Marco’s Pizza, Holdinghausen notes in the article.
“Brandon is such a nice community, and it feels like there’s opportunity for the Marco’s brand here,” he says. “It’s a quality product, and we feel the residents of Brandon will really appreciate it.”
Josh says that the variety of sandwiches and sides, such as subs, salads, and chicken wings, is especially attractive to his customers. All these menu items make Marco’s fans thirsty, as well. The local city council approved beer and wine licenses for the Marco’s locations, which Josh says have been popular with his customers.
Marco’s innovative specialty pizzas are Josh’s favorite options; he says the White Cheezy, which features garlic sauce rather than a traditional red pizza sauce, is his favorite.
The Holdinghausens are joining the Brandon Valley Area Chamber of Commerce, and Josh says they look forward to meeting and working with other chamber members.
Marco’s Pizza franchise helps franchisees grow
This entrepreneur-minded couple has plans to ultimately open eight Marco’s Pizza restaurants across South Dakota. Marco’s is unique in that it offers the quality of handmade pizza with the backing of a national brand and the scalability of a franchise on the rise.
Franchisees are drawn to Marco’s Pizza by the fresh, quality ingredients. Josh Holdinghausen says: “I was attracted to the Marco’s brand because it was founded on Italian freshness and quality standards, making it stand out from all other well-known brands. All ingredients are genuinely fresh and truly craveable.”
Marco’s Pizza, one of the fastest-growing pizza franchises in the country, prides itself in making the best delivery pizza money can buy. 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 founded by a native Italian. We now have more than 650 restaurants open in 34 states and three countries. Marco’s has enjoyed stunning growth in recent years and is on pace to have 1,000 restaurants open by the end of 2017.
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