Jollibee Foods Corp., the biggest fastfood chain in the Philippines, will open its first store in Canada this year. Jollibee chief finance officer Ysmael Baysa said in an interview at the sidelines of the Philipine Investment Forum sponsored by Euromoney the company was looking at Toronto as the site of its first store in Canada.
“We hope to be in Canada within the year,” Baysa said. Jollibee also plans to open more stores in the Middle East and set foot in Japan and some parts of Europe over the next two to three years.
Baysa, meanwhile, said it planned to open five Dunkin Donut outlets this year in China.
Jollibee in December signed a joint venture agreement with Jasmine Asset Holdings Ltd. to operate Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants in selected territories in China.
Dunkin’ Donuts is one of the world’s largest baked foods and coffee chains, serving more than 5 million customers a day globally.
Jollibee committed to invest $180 million in the joint venture while Jasmine would add $120 million.
Jollibee’s wholly-owned subsidiary Jollibee Worldwide Pte. Ltd. will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the business.
Jollibee plans to open 330 stores this year, including 220 in the Philippines and 110 overseas.
The company’s aggressive store rollout forms part of the P9.1-billion programmed capital spending this year.
Jollibee operates the largest food network in the Philippines with 2,301 stores as of end 2014. Aside from its flagship brand Jollibee, the fast-food giant owns Chowking, Greenwich, Red Ribbon, Mang Inasal, and Burger King. It operates 612 stores overseas. Jollibee posted a 12.7-percent increase in net income in 2014 to P5.26 billion against P4.67 billion registered in the same period a year ago.
System-wide retail sales, a measure of all sales to consumers both from company-owned and franchised stores, grew 13.3 percent in 2014 to P117.89 billion from P104.09 billion in 2013.
The sales growth in 2014 was driven by an eight percent same store sales expansion in local and overseas operations and a 5.4-percent increase in store network. Jollibee in 2014 opened 234 stores, including 169 in the Philippines and 65 abroad. (J. Austria, MS)
