Jollibee Food Corporation to acquire Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf brand

MANILA, Philippines — Jollibee Foods Corporation, one of Asia’s largest food service companies, announced Wednesday that it is investing $100 million in a new Singapore-based holding company to acquire 100% of the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf specialty coffee and tea brand.

JFC made the acquisition of the Los Angeles, California-based brand through its wholly-owned Jollibee Worldwide Pte Ltd (JWPL) in Singapore.

JWPL’s subsidiary Java Ventures, LLC United States will be the acquiring entity.

According to JFC Chair Tony Tan Caktiong, the new acquisition will be the “largest and most multinational so far with business presence in 27 countries.”

“Combined with Highlands Coffee, with business mostly in Vietnam, this acquisition will enable JFC to become an important player in the large, fast growing and profitable coffee business,” Tan Caktiong said.

“CBTL will be JFC’s second largest business after Jollibee brand while coffee business will account of JFC’s worldwide system sales,” he added.

Tan Caktiong said the new venture would also add 14% to its global systemwide sales, 26% to its total store network and 36% international business contribution on its worldwide sales.

The acquisition of CBTL is eyed to bring JFC closer to its vision of being one of the top five restaurant companies in the world in terms of market capitalization.

CBTL, known for its original Ice Blended coffee and tea drinks, hot coffee drinks and hot and iced tea drinks, was founded in 1963.

It uses hand-roasted coffee beans and hand-blended teas from farms in various countries like Costa Rica, Colombia, Kenya, Indonesia, Jamaica, Thailand and Sri-Lanka.

At the end of 2018, it gained a revenue of $313 million and has 1,189 outlets worldwide, 336 of which are company-owned while 853 are franchises.

Although based in the US, the company only has 284 branches there. It has 447 branches in South East Asia, 336 in other Asian countries and 122 in other regions.

CBTL has 139 branches in the Philippines so far.

Tan Caktiong said they seek to expand the coffee and tea brand more in Asia.

“Our priority is to accelerate the growth of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf brand particularly in Asia, by strengthening its brand development, marketing, and franchise support system,” he said.

JFC remains to be the largest food service network in the country with 3,195 restaurant outlets operated as of June 30, 2019. Its worldwide stores reached 4,613.

Currently, JFC operates the following other brands globally: Jollibee, Chowking, Greenwich, Red Ribbon, Mang Inasal, Burger King, Pho24, Yonghe King, Hong Kong Zhuang Yuan, Dunkin Donuts, Highlands Coffee, Hard Rock Café and Smashburger. — Rosette Adel