Hoogland Restaurant Group expands to 120 Marco's Pizza locations amid QSR sector headwinds
Against economic headwinds that characterize the current quick-service restaurant environment, expansion signals at the franchise level carry weight. Hoogland Restaurant Group, Marco's Pizza's biggest franchisee, has acquired…
Key takeaways
- Hoogland Restaurant Group, Marco's Pizza's largest franchisee, acquired five additional stores to reach 120 locations across 14 states.
- The five new units are in Lewisville, Fort Worth, Saginaw, and North Richland Hills, Texas, and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
- Marco's Pizza's domestic footprint reached 1,196 locations in 2025, a 2.9% increase over the prior year according to Technomic.
- Marco's is targeting more than 80 new openings this year, including a West Coast push.
- Marco's is building an Operations Center of Excellence in Orlando, Florida, backed by more than $1 million and expected to open in the fall.
Against economic headwinds that characterize the current quick-service restaurant environment, expansion signals at the franchise level carry weight. Hoogland Restaurant Group, Marco's Pizza's biggest franchisee, has acquired five additional stores, bringing its footprint to 120 locations in 14 states, with new units in Lewisville, Fort Worth, Saginaw, and North Richland Hills, Texas, and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
HRG president McLain Hoogland said in a statement that the group's capacity to grow rather than contract in the current environment reflects the strength of its team. That positioning, against a backdrop the company's own leadership described as economically challenging for QSR, is itself a read-through for franchisee confidence in Marco's unit-level economics.
Marco's domestic footprint reached 1,196 locations in 2025, a 2.9% increase over the prior year according to Technomic. The company is targeting more than 80 new openings this year, including a West Coast push. Hoogland's block of 120 stores now represents the largest single-franchisee operating presence in the Marco's system.
To support execution at that scale, Marco's is building an Operations Center of Excellence in Orlando, Florida. Backed by an investment of more than $1 million, the facility is expected to open in the fall and will include a training kitchen alongside office space for approximately 50 corporate team members. The company recently added Steve Kennedy as chief marketing officer and Bill Schaffler as chief financial officer.
Franchisee capital commitment at this point in the consumer cycle carries its own signal. A group deploying resources into five Texas and Tennessee locations is pricing its own forward demand curve against the current demand environment. On balance, the Hoogland move reads as a bet that pizza QSR holds its ground. The macro caveat: if consumer spending on food away from home softens further, even well-positioned operators feel volume pressure first.
Hoogland Restaurant Group is a Highland Ventures company, founded in 2012 in Brentwood, Tennessee. Marco's Pizza, founded in 1978 in Oregon, Ohio, now operates more than 1,300 stores domestically and internationally.
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