|
JOLLIBEE
Foods Corp. (JFC) will pursue its planned expansion to
India.
In a
chance interview Wednesday, chairman and president Tony
Tan Caktiong said the company is keen on acquiring a
fast-food chain in that country which offers either
Chinese or Indian cuisine.
“We are
still on the lookout for opportunities in India,” he
told reporters.
JFC,
whose shares are traded at the Philippine Stock
Exchange, is the country’s biggest fast-food operator.
Apart from flagship brand Jollibee, the company also
operates Chowking,
Greenwich,
Red Ribbon, Delifrance and Manong Pepe stores.
In March
JFC opened a Jollibee store in China, six years after it
ended the operation of a franchised store in Xiamen. The
branch is in Jia Ning Na Mall in Shenzhen City, China.
“This is the first Jollibee store opened in
China
after several years. The company operated a franchised
store in Xiamen from 1998 to 2002,” the company said.
As of
end-February, JFC outlets in the country reached 1,459
stores—625 Jollibee stores; 376 Chowking branches; 237
Greenwich stores; 192 Red Ribbon stores; 27 Delifrance
branches and two Manong Pepe stores.
There
are also 186 stores overseas, broken down as 102 Yonghe
King stores in China; one ChunShui Tang store in China;
14 Jollibee branches in the US; 22 Red Ribbon outlets in
the US; 12 Chowking joints in the US; nine Chowking
stores in Dubai; five Chowking outlets in Indonesia, and
21 Jollibee branches in other countries.
JFC
posted a 9.6-percent growth in net profit in 2007 to
P2.4 billion, from P2.2 billion a year earlier despite a
15.5-percent contraction in net earnings in the fourth
quarter. The growth was pulled by the 12.7-percent rise
in revenues, which amounted to P38.67 billion.
Meanwhile, company chief finance officer Ysmael V. Baysa
said the lower fourth-quarter net income was net of
estimated accounting adjustments of P115 million after
tax consisting of various expense items such as the
write-off of assets from closed stores and the provision
for the cost of JFC stock options.
“Excluding these adjustments, the consolidated net
income for the fourth quarter would have been P665
million,” he explained. JFC’s revenues from October to
December 2007 rose 12.1 percent to P10.7 billion.
Baysa
said the prices of raw materials, particularly milk,
cheese, cooking oil and flour rose sharply in the fourth
quarter of 2007. |
