Gold Coast chain Maries Pizza to mark 40 years with move into Brisbane market

A Gold Coast fast food institution has a rebrand and expansion into Brisbane on its radar as it looks to its fifth decade in business.

GOLD Coast institution Maries Pizza has a rebrand and expansion into Brisbane on its radar as it looks to its fifth decade in business.

Maries Pizza was founded in 1981 by Marie and Ted Sherman, whose first store was in Palm Beach.

Fast forward 39 years and their daughter and company CEO Kate Biglands is eyeing an expansion for the first time outside of the Gold Coast, where it has six stores.

Ms Biglands said it was the coronavirus-related downturn that had led her to think of changes to the business.

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Maries Pizza has been around since 1981.

“I just wanted to start looking at growth and start thinking about the future more so than being worried about what is happening with COVID-19,” she said.

“We haven’t tested our model (outside of the Gold Coast) but we have a lot of people who come down from Brisbane on the weekend.

“Some people drive all the way down from Brisbane just to get a pizza.

“A lot of people ask us, ‘when are we coming to Brisbane?’”

Ms Biglands said she had already scoped out several sites in the northern suburbs of Brisbane for its next store, which she hopes to open early next year.

Maries Pizza CEO Kate Biglands is planning a first expansion outside of the Gold Coast.

She said the company, which owns all six stores, may look to take on franchise partners to help fund the expansion. At the same time she said the Maries brand has become “dated” and needed to be refreshed.

“Being around for as long as we can it has become a bit dated so we want to modernise it and make it look fresh.

“The stores all need a bit of a revamp. We are not going to change what we do with the pizzas. That has been tested over time to be very successful. Our core business is making a pizza with lots of toppings on it even despite it has been a challenge at times with costs of product rising.”

She said the company will also develop a new more modern online ordering system to cut out the likes of Uber Eats, which take 35 per cent commissions on sales.

Ms Biglands said initially COVID-19 caused sales to fall 10 per cent, however since the Easter break they have rebounded to be up 25 per cent compared to the same time last year. Ms Biglands said the strength of the business had meant it did not need to rely on the Federal Government’s JobKeeper program and has not laid off a single one of its 70 staff (10 permanent and 60 casual).