Jollibee Foods Corporation, the largest Asian food service company, is planning to invest P12 billion this year for the opening of 500 new stores and expansion of its commissaries in order to sustain its strong growth trajectory.
“We expect revenues and profit to continue to at least sustain historical growth rates in 2018 and in the years ahead,” said Jollibee President Ernesto Tanmantiong during the firm’s annual stockholders’ meeting. Philippine News reported
Last year, JFC profits rose 15 percent to P7.09 billion as system-wide sales hiked 15.2 percent to P171.77 billion while first quarter 2018 earnings surged 17.3 percent to P1.8 billion with system-wide sales jumping 19.3 percent to P45.98 billion.
Tanmantiong noted that, “Jollibee is planning to open 500 new stores worldwide.
Of the P12 billion capex, P7 billion will be used for new stores and renovations while P5 billion will be for commissary investments.”
The firm continues to invest in manufacturing plants and its facility in Canlubang, Laguna will increase capacity by 75 percent so it can serve at least 1,000 stores.
Jollibee Chairman Tony Tancaktiong said 250 to 300 of the new stores will be opened in the Philippines while the balance will be opened by its various brands overseas.
For the stores outside the Philippines, the biggest number will be in China and Vietnam.
“Vietnam is growing fast and it has a young population and both Jollibee Vietnam and Highlands Coffee are growing very well,” said Tancaktiong.
He added that “we have an aggressive expansion of Highlands Coffee in Vietnam. Highlands Coffee is already the number one chain in Vietnam and we expect PH to follow.
“We are very excited with Vietnam because it will be a large consumer country because of the population and there is a lot more room to grow,” said Tancaktiong.