Jollibee sustains quarterly profit growth

MANILA, Philippines - Fastfood giant Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC) turned in higher profits in the fourth quarter of 2012, leading to a double-digit growth for the entire year on the back of robust systemwide sales.

In a regulatory filing, the company said its fourth quarter earnings went up 5.9 percent to P1.245 billion as systemwide sales climbed 10.4 percent to P25.35 billion.

JFC chief finance officer Ysmael V. Baysa said net income would have been higher were it not for a P371-million write-off as the fastfood chain closed 14 stores in the US and 31 in China.

Excluding the write-off, fourth quarter operating income spiked 42.2 percent and net income gained 27.6 percent, he pointed out.

“The significant cost of the store closures prevented JFC from achieving an otherwise outstanding financial performance in 2012,” Baysa said, adding that the firm will make better investment decisions moving forward.

For the entire year, JFC recorded a 15.1-percent growth in profits to P3.72 billion from P3.23 billion a year earlier. Without the write-off, JFC’s full-year profits would have risen 23.6 percent.

Systemwide sales, a measure of all sales to customers both in company-owned and franchised stores, rose 12.3 percent to P92.27 billion from P82.17 billion.

Systemwide sales in all regions performed strongly last year, led by China that jumped 27.1 percent. Southeast Asia and the Middle East grew 23.8 percent while Philippines gained 10.3 percent, and the US expanded 9.2 percent.

“Our efforts in strengthening the brands, improving the products and increasing the value to customers are delivering strong results,” said JFC chairman and CEO Tony Tan Caktiong.

The fastfood giant opened 223 new stores last year composed of 135 in the Philippines (39 for Jollibee, 21 for Chowking, nine for Red Ribbon, eight for Greenwich, 51 for Mang Inasal and seven for Burger King) and 88 abroad.

Specifically, it expanded commercial operations in China (59 Yonghe King, two Hong Zhuang Yuan and six San Pin Wang), US (one Jollibee and one Chowking) and Southeast Asia and Middle East (14 Jollibee and five Chowking).

JFC operates the largest fastfood service network in the Philippines with 2,074 branches composed of 780 Jollibee branches, 386 Chowking, 202 Greenwich, 212 Red Ribbon, 465 Mang Inasal and 29 Burger King.

The foreign operations of JFC has 554 stores: Yonghe King with 297 stores, Hong Zhuang Yuan with 46 and San Pin Wang with 40, all in China; 27 Jollibee, 32 Red Ribbon, 19 Chowking and three Chow Fun branches in the US; and 65 Jollibee and 25 Chowking stores in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

For this year, JFC committed to spend P5.5 billion to put up 300 new stores across all its brands here and abroad like in Indonesia and China. The company is banking on higher consumer spending, new stores and election spending to grow its sales anew this year.