Jollibee nets P3.05B on strong PH business

FASTFOOD giant Jollibee Foods Corp. booked a 17.5 percent year-on-year growth in first semester net profit to P3.05 billion led by the strong growth of its Philippine business.

For the second quarter alone, Jollibee’s net profit attributable to equity holders of parent company also expanded by 17.2 percent year-on-year to P1.66 billion, the company disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

Jollibee, Asia’s largest food service company, grew system-wide sales from company-owned and franchised stories by 14.9 percent in the first six months to P71.45 billion. For the second quarter alone, sales rose by 15.1 percent year-on-year to P37.1 billion.

Sales growth in the Philippines accelerated to 17.9 percent in the second quarter, with all brands growing at a double-digit pace, outpacing the 3.7 percent growth in sales from foreign businesses.

“Our Philippine business which accounts for at least 80 percent of our worldwide sales has been experiencing its strongest organic growth in many years. We attribute this to continued improvement in product quality and value offering supported by focused marketing campaigns, store expansion and renovation, low inflation rate, healthy growth of the coutnry’s economy and election-related spending. All brands performed very well,” Jollibee chief executive officer Ernesto Tanmantiong said.

But Jollibee’s business abroad had mixed performance. Business in Southeast Asia grew by 37 percent led by Singapore with 56 percent and Vietnam with 49 percent. The Middle East rose by 17 percent and the United States increased by 11 percent.

“China’s sales decreased by 5.7 percent due to competitive pressure on Yonghe King, our largest brand there. Our two established brands in China, Hong Zhuang Yuan and San Ping Wang continued to perform strongly,” Tanmantiong said.