Jollibee putting up shop in UAE

FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Homegrown fast-food chain Jollibee Food Corp. (JFC) is expanding its footprint in the Middle East with a new joint-venture deal that will bring flagship brand Jollibee to oil-rich United Arab Emirates.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Tuesday, JFC said it had signed an agreement with Golden Crown Foods LLC to set up shop in the UAE. The initial funding for the joint venture was estimated at $80 million.

JFC, through wholly owned subsidiary Golden Plate Pte. Ltd., will own 49 percent of the joint venture while Golden Crown will own 51 percent. These two companies will share control and management of the venture “equally,” the company said in the disclosure.

This deal expands JFC’s presence in the Middle East, which has a vast concentration of overseas Filipino workers. JFC currently has 42 outlets, all of which are franchised, in this part of the world.

For the Jollibee brand, the group has 16 stores: nine in Saudi Arabia, four in Qatar and three in Kuwait. It has 26 Chowking stores in the Middle East: five in Qatar, two in Oman and 19 in the UAE.

In terms of growth momentum, system-wide sales of JFC in the Middle East grew by 28 percent last year.

JFC grew its net profit last year by 24.5 percent year on year to P4.64 billion as sales from its restaurant network here and overseas expanded at a double-digit pace. It ended 2013 with an international store network of 2,764, out of which 2,181 are in the Philippines.

Apart from Jollibee and Chowking, JFC operates Greenwich, Red Ribbon, Mang Inasal and Burger King (Philippines). In China, it operates the Yonghe King, Hong Zhuang Yuan and San Pin Wang chains. It also has a 50-percent stake in the joint venture operating Highlands Coffee (in Vietnam and the Philippines), Pho24 (in Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Hong Kong, Macau and Cambodia) and 12 Sabu (China).—Doris C. Dumlao