Jollibee Foods: announces new expansion plans

Manila / PH. (jfc) Jollibee Foods Corporation, the Philippines´ largest fast food group, plans to expand its market in the People´s Republic of China this year. According to Chairman and Chief Executive Tony Tan Caktiong the food service giant will build 60 new stores in China, which accounts for the bulk of the company´s international expansion efforts: «Our foregoing expansion priorities are still in China. We are still looking in India and Indonesia», Tan Caktiong said in Manila.

For the 60 new stores in China the company will spend 600 million PHP of a 4,8-billion PHP capital outlay this year. Furthermore, 40 new stores will be built in other foreign countries, Jollibee´s chief financial officer Ysmael V. Baysa added. According to Chowking and Greenwich President Ariel P. Fermin, the group additionally will open 100 new stores in the Philippines. For pizza chain Greenwich, Jollibee Foods will set up 30 new stores, while Chinese fast food chain Chowking will open 40 new stores.

In the first quarter 2010, system-wide retail sales, a measure of sales from both company-owned and franchised stores, rose by 8,4 percent to 16,3 billion PHP year-on-year. The group reported a consolidated net income of 691 million PHP for the first quarter 2010 – 23 percent higher than the net income generated in the same period last year. The increase in profit was driven by higher sales and higher profit margin.

Jollibee operates the largest quick-service restaurant network in the Philippines with a total of 1’569 stores in the country. There are 692 Jollibee stores nationwide, 401 Chowking Chinese restaurants, 227 Greenwich pizza houses, 211 Red Ribbon bakeries, 24 Delifrance pastry outlets and 14 Manong Pepe restaurants. The group has also 334 stores abroad: 165 Yonghe King outlets in China; 55 Jollibee stores mostly in the United States, Vietnam and Brunei; 35 Red Ribbon branches in the US; 33 Chowking outlets in Dubai and the US; and 46 Hong Zhuang Yuan branches in China.

In May, the fast food giant signed a partnership with the local master franchisee of Caffe Ti-Amo, a Korean restaurant offering coffee and ice cream («gelato») in a casual dining format. The partners will invest ten million PHP to put up ten coffee and gelato stores this year – Jollibee said in a press release (PDF, two pages, 1’646 KB).