FILE PHOTO
Fast-food giant Jollibee Foods Corp. grew its net profit attributable to equity holders of parent firm by 15 percent last year to P7.09 billion on a record store rollout program and strong same-store sales.
For the fourth quarter alone, JFC’s attributable net profit rose by 11.7 percent year-on-year to P1.98 billion, Asia’s most valuable restaurant chain disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
The full-year performance brought JFC’s return on equity to 19.3 percent, stable from 19.2 percent in the previous year.
System-wide sales grew by 15.2 percent for the whole year to P171.77 billion, driven by the expansion of its store network and strong same-store sales. Sales out of the Philippines alone grew by 13.2 percent last year while overseas business rose by 23.4 percent.
JFC opened a total of 465 stores last year, the highest number of new stores opened in a single year in its 39-year history. It ended last year with 3,797 stores, up by 16.7 percent from the previous year. Of new store openings, 328 were in the Philippines and 137 were overseas.
For the fourth quarter alone, systemwide sales grew by 16.9 percent year-on-year to P48.38 billion.
Operating income for the full year grew by 9.4 percent to P7.07 billion while operating income for the fourth quarter declined by 4.6 percent year-on-year to P1.48 billion.
Operating income margins for the fourth quarter and the entire year decreased by 0.9 percentage and 0.3 percentage points, respectively, due to the rapid increase in cost of raw materials, freight alongside higher store and manufacturing expenses.