GLOBAL EXPANSION. Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC) chief finance officer Richard Shin in a virtual media briefing on April 4, 2024. JFC said it aims to shift to franchising in growing its presence in the US market. (Screenshot from Microsoft Teams)
MANILA – Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC) aims to ramp up franchising activity to grow its presence in North America, its chief finance officer Richard Shin said in a virtual briefing Thursday.
Shin said JFC’s expansion in the United States is focused on the top 30 cities for fried chicken.
“We’ve also identified where we have stores and where we have wide space. So that process will mean that we’ll take that as priority for the new stores. So we’ll start to fill in those 30 locations,” Shin said.
In 2022, the listed company planned to grow its stores in North America to 500 in the next five to seven years.
To date, there are 100 stores in North America—72 in the US and 28 in Canada, which are all company-owned stores.
“It really depends on our ability to shift from being great operators… to shift to be equally great franchisors,” Shin said
He added that franchisees can look at JFC as a viable alternative franchise brand for competitors like KFC and Popeyes.
Shin noted that JFC’s daily average sales of its US stores is 2.5 to 3 times higher than the two competitors.
“We’re very delighted with those kinds of statistics, because we know once we build a store, our throughput through that store is quite high,” he said.
JFC is focusing on North America and Asia to accelerate its international expansion.
The Filipino company targets to build scale in China by franchising Yonghe King.
It also aims to become a global leader in coffee and tea through franchise networks.
About 80 percent of the new stores of JFC will be overseas and the rest are eyed to continue growing its market penetration in the Philippines.
According to Brand Finance Restaurant 2024, JFC’s fast-food chain Jollibee is the world’s second fastest-growing brand, with brand value surging by 51 percent to USD2.3 billion. (PNA)
