Jollibee profit jumps 17.3% to P1.8B

Homegrown fast-food giant Jollibee Foods Corp. grew its net profit in the first quarter by 17.3 percent year-on-year to P1.8 billion.

System-wide sales expanded by 19.3 percent year-on-year to P45.98 billion, supporting the 18.8-percent growth in revenue to P34.8 billion, JFC disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Of its system-wide sales growth rate, global store network expansion accounted for 10 percentage points, same-store sales contributed 7.6 percentage and currency exchange rate changes added 1.7 percentage.

Same-store sales growth pertains to restaurants that have been open for at least 15 months, excluding sales growth from new store opening to allow better comparison.

The consolidation of Vietnam-based SuperFoods Group contributed 2.8 percentage to the 19.3-percent sales growth.

JFC chief financial officer Ysmael Baysa said: “Same store sales growth in the Philippines remained strong and better than forecast, reflecting the country’s strong GDP (gross domestic product) growth rate. All key countries: Philippines, China and North America delivered slightly above 8-percent same store sales growth.”

“Operating profit of businesses in the Philippines grew by 18 percent versus the same quarter last year. Gross profit margins were only slightly below year-ago level despite rising inflation rate and cost increases brought by the tax reform and the peso depreciation,” he added.

Baysa said the gradual price adjustments that started in 2017 supported profit margins.