Jollibee opens 800th store

MALAYBALAY CITY—Jollibee Foods Corp. formally opened its second store here recently  with a feeding program that benefited pupils of a school next to its location on Fortich St.

Joseph Tanbuntiong, president of Jollibee Philippines, joined other Jollibee officers and staffers in distributing food to pupils of the Malaybalay City Elementary School during the conduct of the company’s Busog Lusog Talino (BLT) program, as part of the launching of what was described as the fast food giant’s 800th store.

The company’s BLT program started in 2007 as part of its corporate social responsibility and the company claims it has so far served about 40,000 students in more than 100 sites nationwide.

The  opening of the 288-seater Jollibee branch with a drive-through facility here, Tanbuntiong says, was very significant because aside from being the 800th store that Jollibee had established, the day was also the company’s 35th anniversary.

Ana Aluyen, Jollibee Regional Business Unit head for Mindanao, says the fast food company continues to be optimistic about the prospects of doing business in Mindanao. She points out that the first Jollibee branch here was established about a decade ago.

Aluyen credited the recent infrastructure development projects implemented in the resource-rich island, such as the concreting of the highway linking Cagayan de Oro and Davao cities, as among the developments that have added to the company’s confidence in Mindanao.

As a measure of its growing confidence in the economic prospects of Mindanao, Aluyen says Jollibee has already opened six stores in Mindanao this year alone, with two more branches slated to open by year-end.

Aluyen says Jollibee’s aggressive expansion in Mindanao was inline with its commitment “to provide more Filipinos with a place to bond and share happy moments over langhap-sarap food.”

Jollibee started as a Magnolia Ice Cream parlor and was founded in 1975 by Tony Tan and his family.

In 1978, the Tan siblings tapped management consultant Manuel Lumba, which helped them steer the ice cream parlor business into becoming one of the world’s fast food giants—with branches in the United States, Asia and the Middle East.

Jollibee’s meteoric rise amid the dominance of the fast food market by American companies was being credited to its family-oriented approach to personnel management and service. This approach even made Jollibee one of the most admired employers in the Philippines and has consistent been on the list of Asia’s top brands.

The Asian Wall Street Journal also cited the company as among Asia’s top 20 employers. JB R. Deveza, Inquirer Mindanao