Jollibee nets P4.81B

FASTFOOD giant Jollibee Foods Corp. saw a 10.4 percent decline in net profit last year to P4.81 billion due to extraordinary costs linked to its record expansion.

JFC’s net profit last year was adversely affected by significant short-term costs amounting to P1 billion associated with information technology upgrade, the increase in network development, the acquisition of US hamburger chain Smashburger as well as additional supply chain and logistic costs needed to support growth, JFC chief finance officer Ysmael Baysa said in a press statement on Tuesday.

For the fourth quarter 2015 alone, net profit attributable to equity holders of parent declined by 44.9 percent year-on-year to P948 million.

JFC said its operating income would have grown by 20.9 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter and by 4.8 percent for the entire year excluding extraordinary cost items. Net income would have increased by 8.2 percent for the fourth quarter year-on-year and by 7.8 percent for the full year.

System-wide sales for the fourth quarter grew by 11.8 percent to P36.26 billion, in turn driven by 6-7 percent growth in same stores sales – or excluding the impact of newly opened stores to allow better comparison.

For the whole year, sales rose by 10.9 percent to P130.73 billion. Full-year revenues went up by 11.2 percent to P100.78 billion.