By Leslie Gatpolintan/PNA
MANILA — Homegrown fast-food giant Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC) booked a 17.1-percent increase in profit in 2018 after opening 502 stores, the highest number of new stores opened for a single year in its 40-year history.
In a statement to the local bourse, JFC said its net income attributable to equity holders of the Parent reached PHP8.3 billion last year from PHP7.1 billion in 2017.
System wide sales, a measure of all sales to consumers both from company owned and franchised stores, grew by 23.5 percent to PHP212.18 billion from PHP171.76 billion.
Excluding the impact of the consolidation of American burger chain Smashburger into JFC effective April 2018, system wide sales grew by 13.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 201 8 against the same period the previous year, and by 16.6 percent for the entire year of 2018.
JFC said its revenues also grew by 20.6 percent to PHP158.67 billion from PHP131.58 billion.
In the Philippines, sales of its restaurant chains increased by 15.1 percent for the entire year, driven by 8.2-percent contribution from new stores and 6.9 percent same store sales growth.
Sales of stores abroad surged by 55.5 percent led by the North America business which grew by 161.1 percent due to the consolidation of Smashburger; while Europe, Middle East and Asia, excluding Philippines, business grew by 42.7 percent (28.6 percent excluding SuperFoods); and the China business by 9.1 percent.
“The Philippine business performed strongly in 2018 despite rising inflation rate and slowing GDP (gross domestic product) growth. Same store sales grew by 6.9 percent in 2018 compared with 5.3 percent in 2017 while growing store network by 8.7 percent,” JFC Chief Executive Officer Ernesto Tanmantiong said.
“We continue to pursue our aspiration to become one of the top restaurant companies in the world,” he added.
For 2019, JFC has allotted PHP17.2 billion in capital expenditures for new stores, renovation of existing stores, and investments in manufacturing plants.
This amount is almost double the actual spending in 2018 at PHP9.6 billion.
At the end of 2018, JFC was operating 3,126 restaurant outlets in the Philippines, and 1,395 stores abroad.
The JFC Group’s worldwide store network reached 4,521 stores.
