Inside GOPIZZA’s new convenience store formats
1,000 new GOPIZZA outlets are set to open this way.
Korean pizza fast-food brand GOPIZZA will start opening smaller formats inside convenience stores after it announced a partnership with GS25, one of South Korea’s biggest convenience store brands.
“So we are rolling around 250 stores within their convenience store by June and 1,000 by this year. So by the end year, we will have more than 1000 units,” Jay Lim, Global CEO and founder of GOPIZZA told QSR Media.
Jay said by leveraging these retailer platforms, restaurant businesses can solve issues like property and labour, providing a win-win for both convenience store retailers and fast-food brands.
“This has infinite potential in terms of expansion as well because GS25 has 18,000 outlets in Korea. By installing our stores in these retail chains, we can also enter cinemas or supermatets. To get the branding and quality right on those sites, we can be the most accessible pizza brand in the world,” Jay said.
But does this mean their restaurant formats will take a backseat? Jay said no, saying that they are still expanding their dine-in and standalone store formats. The new format will act as a parallel strategy for the brand.
“Because partnership stores don't require our capital, we can shift our most capital into [dine-in] stores and then expand partnerships for much more touch points in a short timeframe,” Jay said.
