Jollibee completes purchase of 50% of SuperFoods Group

MANILA, Philippines - Jollibee Foods Corp., through unit Jollibee Worldwide Pte. Ltd., has completed the purchase of half of the business of SuperFoods Group, which operates the chain of Highlands Coffee Shops in Vietnam, Hard Rock Cafe franchised stores and Pho 24 restaurants.

In its disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday, Jollibee said the acquisition of a 50 percent stake in SuperFoods Group worth at $25 million was pursuant to an agreement made on May 20, 2011 with its partner, Viet Thai International Joint Stock Co. (VTI).

 Under the deal, Jollibee also extended a $35-million loan to VTI.

The SuperFoods Group has annual sales of around $30 million. It owns Hard Rock Café franchised stores in Macau, Hong Kong and Vietnam.

Pho 24 serves traditional Vietnamese dish with rice noodles as its core products. It has operations in Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Hong Kong, Cambodia and Japan. 

Highlands Coffee, meanwhile, serves Vietnamese coffee and light meals in trendy coffee shops. It also sells packaged coffee through retail outlets.

Jollibee said it plans to serve Highlands Coffee in the restaurants of its various brands in order to upgrade the quality of its coffee at prices its consumers can afford.

Currently, Highlands Coffee have 56 stores in Vietnam while Pho 24 has 48 restaurants in Vietnam, 11 in Indonesia, four in Hong Kong, three in Tokyo, Japan, one in Cambodia and two in the Philippines.

In the Philippines, the franchising rights for operating Highlands Coffee Shops was granted to IP Ventures pursuant to an agreement made on Dec. 20, 2011.

Jollibee said it would use the equity method in accounting for its 50 percent interest in the SuperFoods joint venture in compliance with the Philippine Financial Reporting Standards and the International Financial Reporting Standards.

The Jollibee Group operates the largest restaurant network in the country with a total of 2,003 stores as of Dec. 31, 2011, comprising 747 Jollibee, 391 Chowking, 205 Greenwich, 208 Red Ribbon, 429 Mang Inasal and 23 Burger King.

Overseas, it has 468 stores: Yonghe King, 265; Hong Zhuang Yuan, 52; Jollibee, 78 (US 27, Vietnam 31, Brunei 11, Jeddah 7, Hong Kong and Qatar 1 each); Red Ribbon in the US, 34 and Chowking, 39,for a total of 2,471 stores worldwide.