Jollibee ramps up expansion in China

MANILA, Philippines – Homegrown fast food giant Jollibee Foods Corp. is aggressively expanding in China this 2012.

On the sidelines of the 2012 CFO Forum sponsored by ING Bank on Thursday, August 30, Jollibee’s chief finance officer Ysmael Baysa told reporters the company will open 100 stores in China for its 3 brands there.

Jollibee has acquired the following Chinese brands: Yonghe King (in 2005), Hong Zhuang Yuan (in 2008) and San Pin Wang (in 2012).

The 100 new stores in China will make up bulk of the total 150 stores it targets to open this 2012. 

He said Jollibee’s China operations have grown 30% annually and now account for 11% of the company’s global sales.  

Baysa said the group had a total of 368 stores in the world’s second-largest economy as of end-June.

The importance of China

China has begun to play an increasingly important role for Jollibee. China sales grew 25.8% in 2011, faster than the 25% growth performance of operations in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

In 2011, Jollibee established headquarters in China — a research and development center in Beijing and a food processing center in Anhui province.

China is key to Jollibee’s plans to grow its foreign business to 50% of system-wide sales in 5 to 7 years, company chairman and CEO Tony Tan Caktiong said in June.

In 2011, Jollibee sourced 80% of its P82.2 billion system-wide sales from its domestic operations and only 20% from overseas.

“We would like to target 50/50 probably by 5 to 7 years time,” Caktiong had said.

The listed firm has forged a joint venture for stores in Singapore, which is host to overseas Filipino workers, and has recently inked a deal with a Taiwan-based firm for a hotpot business in China. 

Global and local stores

Jollibee operates over 2,500 stores worldwide.

• Jollibee – 33 in USA, 32 in Vietnam, 11 in Brunei, 7 in Jeddah 7, and one each in Hong Kong, Qatar and Kuwait
• Red Ribbon – 33 in the US 33
• Chowking – 19 in US, 17 in Dubai, 2 in Indonesia, 2 in Qatar
• Chow Fun – 3 in US
• San Pin Wang – 35 in China
• Yonghe King – 267 in China
• Hong Zhuang Yuan – 52 in China , Jollibee 79

In the Philippines, the Jollibee group operates the largest restaurant network. It operates a total of 2,004 stores in the country as of March 2012. The breakdown:

• Jollibee brand, 752 stores
• Chowking, 381
• Greenwich, 204
• Red Ribbon, 207
• Mang Inasal, 436
• Burger King, 24

 – Rappler.com