No Brand Pizza accused of copying GOPIZZA

Models hold pizzas from No Brand Pizza at a restaurant in Seoul, March 10. Courtesy of Shinsegae Food

By Kim Jae-heun

No Brand Pizza, a pizza chain newly launched by Shinsegae Food, has been accused of copying the product concept and store interior of GOPIZZA, another local pizza franchise, according to industry officials Wednesday.

GOPIZZA's restaurant in Daechi, southern Seoul / Courtesy of GOPIZZA

GOPIZZA, which claims it makes the fastest pizza in just eight minutes, developed a high-temperature smart oven which it says cooks pizza quickly to compete with international pizza restaurants, as those take 13 minutes on average to make a pizza. This technique has helped GOPIZZA to open over 100 restaurants across the country in the six years since first starting out with a food truck in 2016, the company said.

GOPIZZA officials claimed that Shinsegae copied its sales and operational knowhow when it opened its first No Brand Pizza restaurant right across from GOPIZZA's store in southern Seoul, March 10.

“We spent a lot of money developing the oven used at our franchise restaurants. But all of a sudden, Shinsegae stole our concept and we are feeling a sense of danger that we might lose our competitiveness,” a GOPIZZA official said.

No Brand also copied GOPIZZA's orange signboard. Even the black uniforms and orange aprons worn by No Brand Pizza workers are nearly the same as those worn by GOPIZZA employees.

“We were surprised to see how similar No Brand Pizza is to ours. Some customers might think GOPIZZA and No Brand Pizza are the same brand because of the shared design of the workers' uniforms,” the official said.

No Brand Pizza said it only used the orange color for the restaurant's signboard to distinguish itself from No Brand Burger's yellow signboard.

“We did not copy the design of our signboard from any specific brand. We also happened to open our pizza restaurant (right in front of GOPIZZA's store) because our No Brand Burger store was there before. About the eight-minute pizza-making technique, it is hard to see that GOPIZZA owns it,” a No Brand official said. “We expect to see a healthy change in the local pizza business with more franchises offering cheap but high-quality food to customers.”