Jollibee cooking up expansion in Vietnam, entry into Australia

VIETNAM – Asian food conglomerate Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC) is accelerating the expansion of its flagship brand outside the Philippines, with plans to ramp up store openings in Vietnam as well as make its much-awaited entry into the Australian market.

JFC, which opened yesterday its 200th Jollibee store here, intends to take a bigger bite into Vietnam’s quick service restaurant (QSR) industry in the coming years.

Jollibee Group chief financial and risk officer Richard Shin told The STAR that they are looking at opening another 50 stores in Vietnam in the first half of 2025.

“We want to get to number one. It may not be next year, but latest I think it will be the year after,” he said.

JFC’s journey in Vietnam started in 2005 with the opening of the first Jollibee store in Ho Chi Minh City.

Jollibee Group CEO Ernesto Tanmantiong said that Vietnam plays an important market for JFC with a network of 200 Jollibee stores at present.

Jollibee Vietnam is committed to reaching the 300-store mark “as soon as possible.”

“We’re very bullish with the Vietnam market and we think that Vietnam can even be similar to Jollibee in the Philippines in the near future as we continue to grow aggressively,” Tanmantiong said.

Over the next five years, Vietnam is expected to maintain its position as the largest market outside the Philippines for the Jollibee brand.

“Vietnam holds a special place in our growth story. It is Jollibee’s largest market outside of the Philippines and its vibrant culture, dynamic economy and passionate people make it a cornerstone of our expansion strategy,” JFC Philippines CEO and Jollibee global head Joseph Tanbuntiong said.

”Our dream is big. Here in Vietnam, we will continue to open more stores and become the number one quick service restaurant brand in the country.  Around the world, we will accelerate the growth of our Jollibee brand as one of the key drivers of our midterm strategy to triple the value in five years,” Tanbuntiong said.

Jollibee Group regional business head for Europe, Middle East, Asia and Australia Dennis Flores said the group is looking to penetrate some other markets in Asia as well as Australia in the next five years.

“In Asia, apart from Vietnam, we’re in Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau Malaysia and Brunei and soon we will be opening in Australia,” Flores said

“We’ve been planning to enter Australia for quite some time now. The way to succeed in new markets is to choose the right partner. We’ve been very careful in choosing the right partner especially for Australia being a big country with huge potential. We believe that with the rate we’re going, it is highly possible that we will be able to open the first store within the next two years,” he said.

Flores said New South Wales is the primary market, which the group is looking at present for its first potential Jollibee store in Australia.

Jollibee was previously targeting to open its first branch in Australia in the outskirts of Sydney in Campbelltown.

“Campbelltown, it was not about not having a partner in place. The constraint why the project was shelved was because of some administrative challenges that the developer had in that particular concept,” Flores said.

As of end-September, the Jollibee Group’s store network stood at a total of 9,598 composed of 3,340 stores in the Philippines and 6,258 abroad.

Its largest brands by store outlets worldwide are Jollibee, CBTL, Highlands Coffee and Chowking.