Since opening its doors in 1991, Antonio’s Pizza, located in downtown Amherst, has become a focal point in town and a favorite of many University of Massachusetts students.

But according to Jay Carreiro, manager of the Antonio’s Pizza in Amherst, since 2001 the company has been expanding significantly. Antonio’s Pizza opened its first non-Amherst location in Providence, RI in 2001. Today, there are five Antonio’s stores in four states.

The five current stores are located in Easthampton, Amherst, Providence, R.I., College Station, Texas and Champaign, Ill.

Carreiro added that even though Antonio’s has become quite the sizable company over the past 12 years, it has plans to continue to open new restaurants. In the next several years, Antonio’s customers can expect to see new locations opening up in Worcester and in the greater Boston area.

All of the current Antonio’s Pizza locations are either on or near college campuses, said Carreiro. Therefore, he added, it is likely that the company will continue this trend and that the new restaurants will be in areas heavily populated by students.

“The company is trying to move forward, it’s just a natural progression,” said Carreiro when asked why the company has been undergoing such a large expansion recently.

“It is important for the company to try to obtain more of the market” he added.

Carreiro also believes that “the owners want to help out the people that have helped them run their stores for so long.”  He says that with the additional revenue from the new stores, the company will be much more able to help out.

Furthermore, Carreiro assured that there would be no changes to the Amherst location as a result of the expansion.

“I don’t think the quality will suffer at all,” added Rob Walter. Walter has been an employee at Antonio’s for the past four years and is very excited about the upcoming expansions.

“We [are] expanding east towards UMass alums and Amherst alums,” said Walter.  “It’s cool that we can finally have a place out there that they can go to and not have to drive two hours.”

Walter’s sentiments seem to be shared by many of the current customers of the Amherst location of Antonio’s Pizza.

Nathalie Sczublewski, a senior at UMass, and a frequent customer of Antonio’s Pizza is glad that “kids in those areas can [now] experience the awesomeness that is Antonio’s.”

She added that the expansion would be “very good for business.”

While most people, customers and employees alike, seem excited about the prospect of new Antonio’s Pizza restaurants, others did not seem particularly concerned or interested in the upcoming stores.

“Why should [the expansion] matter to me?” asked Ken Bernstein, a former New Yorker.

Despite the fact that Bernstein has unenthusiastic views about the imminent expansion, he remains a loyal customer of Antonio’s Pizza at Amherst, and claims that they have the best pizza.

Nikoleta Nikova can be reached at [email protected]