Marco’s Pizza opened three weeks ago in Overland Park off 95th Street and Antioch Road, and its owner says customers are taking notice.
The 23-foot-tall inflatable “Chef Marco” out front helps.
Former IHOP executive Rakan Dogum opened the newest franchise of the quickly expanding Ohio-based pizzeria chain at 8930 W. 95th St. last month.
And he says he still has some more promotional ideas in mind to spread the word about what he considers the best pizza around, an opinion he began forming when he first tasted it himself a decade ago.
Dogum first encountered Marco’s in 2013
Through his first week, he said he had lines out the door of his strip mall storefront, as well as pages of orders for his staff to handle.
Marco’s Pizza corporate office also brought in the giant inflatable “Chef Marco” mascot to stand outside along 95th street, alerting residents that the store was open for business.
Dogum says the early reviews he’s seen online are good, and he’s confident that his customers’ experience with their pizzas will be as positive as his first encounter with Marco’s was 10 years ago.
“I was on a work trip for my job with IHOP in 2013 and I stopped inside a Marco’s in Charleston, South Carolina,” Dogum said. “Ever since then I always had this idea in the back of my head that it would become my first franchise.”
He was inspired by his entrepreneurial father
He never did shake the idea, and last year he knew it was time to leave IHOP, where he was a regional director of operations, handling ten stores in the Kansas City market.
He says he was overworked, and finally ready to branch out on his own.
He was also, in a way, following in the footsteps of his father, Wally.
“My dad owned convenience stores around St. Louis for over 20 years,” Dogum said. “He can look at a financial statement and tell you everything that’s going on. I wanted this to very much be a family-run business.”
The plan now is to start with the new Marco’s in Overland Park and eventually expand to more locations in the Kansas City area, to match Marco’s growth nationally.
Marco’s now has more than 1,100 locations across the U.S.
Founded near Toledo, Ohio, in 1978, Marco’s now claims to be the fastest-growing pizza chain in the country.
The company now has over 1,100 locations nationwide and last year, achieved $1 billion in annual sales.
With Overland Park’s new spot open, Marco’s Pizza now has six locations in the metro.
Dogum credits the quality of the product as the driving force in its growth and sales. It’s the same he discovered 10 years ago in his stop in South Carolina.
“These are authentic Italian recipes, this is the only franchise pizza place whose founder comes from Italy,” Dogum said. “We make our own sauce from scratch and only use fresh dough.”
The menu also includes pizza bowls and calzones, and boneless wings will be arriving soon.
Dogum has another promotion up his sleeve
Dogum hopes to soon unveil a promotional brainchild: the “Golden Slice.”
Dogum says he’s still waiting for the right moment this summer to load one lucky pizza box with this gift, based on the “golden ticket” idea made famous by “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.”
The “golden slice” will give one lucky winner two months of free pizzas, and perhaps even VIP access to Marco’s kitchen.
“I want to allow the winner’s children to come into the kitchen with us and make their own pizza’s,” Dogum said. “Of course, I need to make sure my insurance will allow for that.”
Ben McCarthy is a contributor to the Post and other publications in the Kansas City area. He can be reached at ben.c.mccarthy@gmail.com with questions, comments and story suggestions.
