Jollibee 1H 2015 Profit Up 5.4%
Pasig—(PHStocks)—Jollibee Foods Corp. (PSE: JFC) grew its revenues by 9.5% in the first six months of 2015 to PhP47.855 billion over the same period a year ago as it accelerated its store network expansion to 3,000 worldwide as of 30 June 2015. Net income reached PhP2.7 billion, up by 7.4% from the same period last year.
JFC Group opened 131 new stores worldwide, of which 102 were in the Philippines, the highest store opening in the first six months of a year. The group has 168 more stores worldwide versus a year ago.
“We are excited about our recent rate of store network expansion. We just achieved the 3,000th store milestone. We are on track to open at least 200 new stores in one year in the Philippines, the first time we will be able to do so,” JFC chief executive officer Ernesto Tanmantiong said. “Historically, we were opening a hundred new stores per year in the country. We look forward to opening 300 new stores worldwide this year, also a first in our history with 100 abroad, the bulk of which will be in the People’s Republic of China. The key drivers of our strong network growth are strong same store sales growth and improved profitability and financial returns of our stores, built over the past two years across the brands and across different regions of the world, and increased capability of our organization particularly our network development group in the Philippines. We look forward to JFC’s resurgence to double-digit sales growth in the quarters and years ahead.”
JFC’s net income attributable to shareholders of the parent company grew by only 5.4% to PhP2.6 billion in the first half of the year, with basically a flat growth in the second quarter despite a 9.5% increase in revenues. Higher raw material prices reduced profit margins while major investment spending on IT, particularly on SAP implementation significantly increased general and administrative expenses.
JFC operates the largest food service network in the Philippines. As of 30 June 2015, it was operating 2,374 restaurant outlets in the country: Jollibee brand, 880; Chowking, 422; Greenwhich, 219; Red Ribbon 349; Mang Inasal, 459; and Burger King, 45. Abroad, it was operating 627 stores: Yonghe King (China), 314; Hong Zhuang Yuan (China), 44; San Pin Wang (China), 56; Jollibee, 131 (US: 32; Vietnam, 66; Brunei, 12; Saudi Arabia, 10; Qatar, 3; Kuwait, 4; Hong Kong, 1; Singapore, 2; and UAE, 1); Red Ribbon in the US, 33; Chowking, 46 (US, 19; UAE, 19; Qatar, 5; Oman, 2; and Kuwait, 1); Jinja Bar, 3 (US). The JFC Group had a total of 3,001 stores worldwide.
JFC also has a 50% stake in joint ventures for the following stores: Highlands Coffee (Vietnam, Philippines), 81; Pho 24 (Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Korea), 38; and 12 Sabu (China), 20.