Jollibee plans to buy US brand

MANILA, Philippines – Fastfood giant Jollibee Foods Corporation (JFC) is eyeing to become one of the top 5 quick service restaurants in the world in terms of market capitalization in the next 7 years.

It is accelerating its store openings in the Philippines, China, and US and through acquisitions.

Jollibee chairman Tony Tan Caktiong said in an interview on the sidelines of the company’s annual stockholders meeting Friday, June 26, that the company is already looking into a US acquisition and hopes to “do something over the next 12 months.”

Tan Caktiong noted that JFC’s major markets are Philippines, China, and the US.  

“In the Philippines, we’re still growing all the different brands and we’re building more stores. In China, we have 3 brands and all are doing well and so we are also doing more stores. In US we are looking in an acquisition,” Tan Caktiong said.

Criteria

Tan Caktiong said the company is already talking to several potential parties.

Among the criteria that Jollibee is looking for is that the company should already be doing well with store size of about 50 to 200 outlets.

“We’re still talking to a few. But are looking for a chain that is doing well. We don’t want a brand that needs turnaround. We want to take over a brand that is already doing well,” Tan Caktiong said.

Jollibee chief finance officer Ysmael Baysa also said that the company will focus on organic growth by fast-tracking the opening of new stores in the Philippines, China, and US.

Jollibee is also looking to expand in new markets including Malaysia and Canada and other US states, particularly Florida and Chicago.

Baysa said the company is also expected to spend P6 ($133.03 million) to P7 billion ($155.22 million) annually primarily for store expansion.

The faster roll out of stores will enable the company to achieve its target double-digit annual growth in terms of sales and net profit.

“We want to grow our sales by double digit every year and we have done that over the last 20 years,” Baysa said.

As of end-March, the company was operating 2,335 restaurant s in the country and 616 stores overseas.

In 2014, the fastfood giant chalked up 14.8% increase in net income to P5.36 billion ($118.87 million) versus P4.67 billion ($103.57 million) recorded in the same period a year ago based on audited figures.

System-wide retail sales, a measure of all sales to consumers both from company-owned and franchised stores, grew 13.3% in 2014 to P117.89 billion ($2.61 billion) compared to P104.09 billion ($2.31 billion) in 2013. – Rappler.com

$1 = P45.09