Jollibee to buy 51% of Milksha

MANILA, Philippines — Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC), the Filipino-owned food conglomerate, is taking a big gulp of the company that owns popular Taiwanese bubble tea brand Milksha.

JFC’s wholly owned subsidiary, Jollibee Worldwide Pte. Ltd. (JWPL), is acquiring a 51 percent ownership in Milkshop International Co. Ltd. (Milkshop) for approximately $12.8 million.

One of the co-founders of Milkshop will continue to retain the 49 percent ownership of Milkshop.

With the acquisition, Milksha products will soon be sold in Chowking stores.

JFC and its subsidiaries, Fresh N’ Famous Foods Inc. and Mang Inasal Philippines Inc. also now have the exclusive rights, through a licensing agreement with Milkshop, to sell and market products under the Milksha brand in their stores.

Milkshop, founded in Tainan City in Taiwan in 2008, is primarily involved in the development, operations and franchising of specialty tea shops under the trade names Milkshop and Milksha, a popular Taiwanese bubble tea brand.

At present, Milkshop has over 250 outlets, with 231 outlets in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Vancouver and Singapore.

The company churned in system wide sales of $66.5 million for 2019 and in 2020, despite the pandemic, Milkshop generated system wide sales of $74.7 million.

In June, JFC announced it was bringing Milksha to Filipino consumers, the Philippines being home to one of the largest milk tea markets in Southeast Asia.

At present, JFC has a worldwide network of 5,853 stores with 17 brands operating in 34 countries.  As of Sept. 30, it was operating 3,202 restaurant outlets in the country.

Its brands include Jollibee, Chowking, Greenwich, Red Ribbon, Mang Inasal, Burger King, Panda Express, Yonghe King, Hong Zhuang Yuan, Dunkin’ Donuts, Tim Ho Wan, Highlands Coffee, PHO24, Smashburger 241 and CBTL

The Jollibee Group aims to become one of the top five restaurant companies in the world. It has been aggressively expanding abroad through store openings and brand acquisitions.