[Newsmaker] Mr. Pizza chairman apologizes for assault

The chairman of MPK Group, which runs the Mr. Pizza chain, issued an official apology Monday night on the company‘s website in response to public outcry over his alleged assault of a security guard Saturday night.

“It was my mistake. I sincerely apologize to the person who was hurt,” the statement from chairman Jung Woo-hyun reads. “I also apologize for upsetting many others. I take full responsibility for the incident, and regret my actions.”

 
The apology came a day after police decided to question him on allegations that he assaulted the security guard, surnamed Hwang, working at a building that contained one of his group’s restaurants in Seoul on Saturday night.

The allegations were that the chairman had become angry that Hwang had locked the building‘s doors with him still inside, although the guard said he was just following protocol.

According to police, the security cameras around the restaurant had caught the chairman hitting Hwang twice between the neck and chin.

A spokesman from Mr. Pizza, the group’s popular pizza chain, told The Korea Herald that the blows were the accidental result of employees trying to pull chairman Jung away from Hwang, maintaining that accusations of assault were unfounded. Police have requested Jung come in for questioning.

However, the public response was cold, with some even calling for a boycott of Mr. Pizza and muffin franchise Manoffin.

“He gets rich off of ordinary Koreans’ money, yet he sees them as all being under his feet,” wrote one online commenter. “The only thing we can do is to stop eating his pizza,” wrote another.

Although the chain’s spokesman had said initially that the chairman was seeking only to make a personal apology to Hwang, the public‘s anger led to an official public apology.

The furor had a visible impact on MPK Group’s stock prices as well. After news of the incident broke Sunday, MPK share prices fell 4.36 percent to 2,850 ($2.47) won on Monday. On Tuesday, the share prices fell 2.28 percent further to 2,785 won. 

The incident was just the latest in a series of controversies surrounding the inappropriate behavior of chief officials at large Korean companies towards service employees, beginning with the “nut rage” scandal involving Korean Air heiress Cho Hyun-ah.

Cho ordered a plane readying for takeoff to taxi back to the airport gate at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York in December 2014 after she was displeased with the way her nuts were served on the plane by a flight attendant.

Just a few months ago, Monggo Foods came under fire when it became known that its honorary chairman Kim Man-sik had regularly abused his personal driver both physically and verbally. Recordings of Kim shouting at his driver were made public, sparking widespread outcry.

Then in March, news broke of Daelim Industrial vice chairman Lee Hae-wook’s abusive behavior towards his own personal driver, with detailed testimony from former chauffeurs who described the experience of driving Lee as “hell.”

By Won Ho-jung (hjwon@heraldcorp.com)