Jollibee nearing 4,000-store mark

MANILA, Philippines - Jollibee Foods Corp.(JFC) is targeting to hit the 4,000-store mark across its brands worldwide this year.

During the company’s annual stockholders meeting Friday, JFC chairman Tony Tan Caktiong said the fastfood giant is eyeing further expansion this year, after opening a record breaking 342 stores in 2016.

JFC chief financial officer Ysmael Baysa told reporters that the company is looking to open at least 350 new branches worldwide, under its 12 brands.

Among the fastfood giant’s brands are Jollibee, Jollibee International, Chowking, Chowking International, Greenwich, Red Ribbon, Red Ribbon USA, Burger King, Mang Inasal, Dunkin Donuts,Younghe King and Hong Zhuang Yuan.

Baysa said 250 of the new branches will be local stores, while the remaining 100 will located abroad.

As of May 201, the company had 3,555 stores worldwide across 12 brands in 17 countries, excluding its stores under joint ventures such as the Smashbuger brand in the US.

“If we include Smashburger, and other joint ventures, JFC already has 3,948 stores worldwide,” JFC chief executive officer Ernesto Tanmationg said.

Apart from the Smashburger brand, JFC also has a joint venture company called the SuperFoods Group in Vietnam in partnership with Viet Thai International Joint Stock Co. (VTI).

Tan Caktiong said the joint venture company is eyeing to go public by listing on the Vietnam stock exchange by July 2019.

JFC has a 46 percent stake in SuperFoods. Baysa said the company has an option to increase its stake to up to 85 percent between 2018 to 2019.

JFC currently has 89 stores under the Jollibee brand in Vietnam, and is targeting to have 300 Jollibee branches in Vietnam in the next five years.

“We’re very excited about Vietnam because it has almost the same population (as the Philippines), Baysa said.

The new Jollibee branches will be opened in Toronto, Canada and Manhattan in New York by the end of this year or early next year. Australia and Guam are also potential sites for the group’s expansion.

For 2017, JFC has earmarked P14.7 billion for its capital expenditures, P9 billion of which will be used for its expansion and relocation initiatives, while the remaining budget will be used for its commissary investments.

The company is set to open its 1000th store in the Philippines next week. This will be located in Bonifacio Global CIty in Taguig City.