Fast food giant Jollibee opens 800th branch

MALAYBALAY CITY—Jollibee Foods Corp. opened its 800th branch here last week with a feeding program that benefited pupils of a school next to its branch on Fortich St.

Joseph Tanbuntiong, president of Jollibee Philippines, joined other Jollibee officers and staffers in distributing food to pupils of Malaybalay City Elementary School during the conduct of the company’s Busog Lusog Talino (BLT) program, as part of the launch of the latest branch, its second here.

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 recent opening of the 288-seater Jollibee branch with a drive-through facility here, Tanbuntiong said, was significant it coincided with the 35th anniversary of the company.

Ana Aluyen, Jollibee Regional Business Unit head for Mindanao, said the fast food company remained optimistic about the prospects of doing  business in Mindanao.

She pointed 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 added to the company’s confidence in Mindanao.

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

Aluyen said Jollibee’s aggressive expansion in Mindanao was in line 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 Caktiong and his family.

In 1978, the Tan siblings tapped management consultant Manuel Lumba, who 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 credited to its family-oriented approach to personnel management and service.

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