SEC approves merger of Jollibee unit, Vismin Foods

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved the merger of Zenith Foods Corp., a wholly-owned unit of Jollibee Foods Corp., and the Cebu-based Vismin Foods Corp. (VFC).

Zenith, the surviving company, shall acquire all assets and assume all liabilities of VFC as of end-September 2007. In exchange for the net assets of VFC, 500,000 shares will be issued to Jollibee to be taken from the unissued portion of Zenith’s authorized capital stock.

The merged entity will have total assets of a little over P3 billion.

VFC was formed by Jollibee to service the Visayas and Mindanao areas.  It has its own production lines for bread, pie, sauces and frozen patties.

Zenith, on the other hand, owns a six-hectare commissary in the Calmelray Industrial Park in Laguna, serving over 800 Jollibee and Greenwich stores. This commissary is reportedly the biggest and most advanced in the country and among Asia’s best.

Aided by custom-made mechanized equipment, the production lines are for the marinated Chicken Joy, frozen patties and pies, breads, sauces, hotdogs and other meat products, and dry blended goods.

The chicken marination line can produce as many as 150,000 pieces a day while about 480,000 hamburger patties a day is turned out by the frozen patty line. The breadline is designed to match the volume output of patties — also about 480,000 pieces a day.

The pie line can produce as much as 157,000 pocket pies in a 20-hour operating day. Currently, pies are exported to Jollibee stores in Hong Kong, Guam, Saipan, Brunei, and the USA. Various sauce products are processed in the ZFC sauceline including those for the Jollibee bestsellers, spaghetti and palabok.

Jollibee’s commissaries have won various awards for implementing high quality standards.

The Jollibee Group owns five fastfood brands domestically and two fastfood brands in China – Yonghe King and tea house Chun Shui Tang. It owns pizza pasta chain Greenwich, Chinese food chain Chowking, Red Ribbon bakeshop and an upscale delicatessen Delifrance.

The group is expanding aggressively overseas as part of a strategy to become a major regional fastfood company in Asia.