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PHILIPPINES’
biggest food service company Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC)
plans to acquire three more brands in China over the
next two to three years, chairman and president Tony Tan
Caktiong told reporters Thursday.
“The
market is so huge in
China
and we want to capitalize on that opportunity,” he said
at the sidelines of the company’s annual stockholders
meeting.
Most
likely, he said JFC will be looking at fastfood-type of
acquisition. He declined to say the amount of
investments the company is planning to set aside for the
acquisition.
At
present, Jollibee Foods operates two brands in China,
namely Yonghe King and Chun Shui Tang.
“We
always consider two major factors every time we acquire
something. Number one is does it fit with our concept
and the other one is how competitive is the price,” Tan
Caktiong said.
Apart
from acquisition, Jollibee Foods continues to expand
organically both here and abroad.
This
year, the company will open 100 stores in the country
led by its flagship brand Jollibee, Chowking, Red
Ribbon, Greenwich and Delifrance. Abroad, JFC will open
30 new branches mostly of Jollibee, Chowking and Red
Ribbon.
Money
for more stores will come from the P2.1-billion capital
expenditure set aside by the company this year.
As of
end May, Jollibee has under its wing 1,383 stores in the
country, including 579 Jollibee outlets; 366 Chowking
restaurants; 237 Greenwich outlets; 165 Red Ribbon
restaurants; and 36 Delifrance outlets.
Overseas, the company has 171 stores including 102
Yonghe Kings; 12 Jollibees in the US; 19 Red Ribbons in
the US; 12 Chowkings in the US; six Chowkings in Dubai;
four Chowkings in Indonesia; and 15 Jollibees in other
countries.
For his
part, chief finance officer Ysmael V. Baysa of Jollibee
Foods said they expect the second-quarter financial
results of the company to outdo its first quarter
performance.
“This is
because of continued sales increase especially because
of the election spending and the improving economy,” he
said.
In the
first quarter, Jollibee Food’s net profit grew 18.3
percent to P531 million from a year earlier while
revenues jumped 14.8 percent to P8.7 billion. |
