Jollibee to reopen all Metro Manila branches Sunday

By: Tina Arceo-Dumlao - 10 years ago

FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—#ChickenSad no more.

Starting Sunday, all closed Jollibee stores in Metro Manila and nearby cities will be back to normal operations.

“Although some of these outlets will still be operating on a limited menu, Jollibee assures the 100 percent availability of its three most popular and bestselling items namely Chickenjoy, Jolly Spaghetti and Yumburger,” Jollibee Foods Corp. said in a statement Friday.

Last August 8, Jollibee apologized for the temporary closure of 72 stores in the metropolis over the lack of popular menu items at its outlets.

This was due to the company’s migration to a new IT system at the start of August, causing delays in the delivery of its supplies from Jollibee’s commissary, it said.

The statement said the JFC Group’s system upgrade was met with difficulties in the conversion from the previous computer system to the new one.

“As a result, even with sufficient food supply, this change resulted in a temporary slowdown in the delivery of Jollibee products from the local commissary to the stores,” it added.

In the same statement, Jojo Subido, Jollibee Vice president for Metro North Operations, assured that contingency measures have been implemented to improve the delivery from its local commissary to the affected stores.

“Our team has been working round the clock to catch up and put to speed our commissary’s delivery schedule to enable all our stores to open by this weekend,” Subido said.

The company said it continues to pay the salaries of all store employees in the affected branches – both managers and crew – even during the days that it had to shut operations.

Contrary to speculations Jollibee ran out of supply, particularly chicken, Subido said the popular restaurant has “sufficient food supply and raw materials—not just chicken but other products—in its centralized commissary in Laguna.”

“We would like to set the record straight that we do not import chicken or other meat products from China. Our chicken requirements are currently sourced from our accredited suppliers such as San Miguel Foods Corporation, Foster Foods Inc., and GAMA Foods Corporation who have all passed our strict quality standards,” he said.

“We would like to once again extend our sincerest apologies to our customers and thank them for bearing with us during these challenging times. Rest assured that we are doing our best to offer a complete menu line-up in all our stores within this month,” Subido added.