By Leslie D. Venzon
MANILA, Feb. 23 (PNA) — Listed fast food giant Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC) posted a 12.7-percent surge in profit in 2014 on the back of robust sales growth driven mainly by additional store openings.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, JFC said its net income attributable to equity holders of the parent reached Php5.3 billion last year from Php4.7 billion in 2013.
It said system wide sales, which measure all sales to consumers both from company-owned and franchised stores, grew by 13.3 percent to Php117.9 billion from Php104.1 billion.
The Philippine business grew by 13.2 percent and the foreign business in Southeast Asia, Middle East, United States and China expanded by 13.7 percent.
The Jollibee Group opened a total of 234 new stores in 2014, of which 169 were in the Philippines and 65 were in foreign operation.
JFC’s chief financial officer Ysmael Baysa said that Philippine and foreign businesses made significant improvement in profitability despite increases in raw material cost and general and administrative expenses.
“We are now very close to fully covering these cost increases and look forward to the full recovery and improvement in gross profit margins in 2015 through lower cost of energy and more stable raw material prices,” he said.
For 2015, JFC will invest Php9.1 billion in capital expenditures as it plans to open about 330 new stores worldwide: 220 in the Philippines and 110 overseas.
“The 2015 capital expenditures will be mostly for the store openings and store renovations in the Philippines and foreign operations, and investments in commissary construction and capacity increase in the Philippines,” the company said.
JFC operates the largest food service network in the Philippines. As of December 31, 2014, it was operating 2,301 restaurant outlets in the country –858 under Jollibee brand, 410 under Chowking, 211 under Greenwich, 323 under Red Ribbon, 456 under Mang Inasal and 43 under Burger King 43.
Abroad, it was operating 612 stores under various brands: Yonghe King, Hong Zhuang Yuan and San Pin Wang in China; Jollibee in United States, Vietnam, Brunei, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Singapore and Hong Kong ; Red Ribbon in the US; Chowking in US, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait; and Jinja Bar in US.
The JFC Group had a total of 2,913 stores worldwide.
JFC also has a 50-percent interest in joint ventures for the following stores: Highlands Coffee, Pho 24 and 12 Sabu here and abroad.
JFC, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Jollibee Worldwide Pte. Ltd. (JWPL), also entered into a joint venture agreement with Jasmine Asset Holding Ltd. on December 19, 2014 to operate Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants in selected territories in the People’s Republic of China. (PNA)