Jollibee sustains sales momentum, record expansion     

MANILA  -Billionaire Tony Tan Caktiong’s Jollibee Foods Corp. maintained its growth momentum during the first quarter of 2023 while opening more than 100 new stores in line with its record expansion target for the year.

Net income during the first three months fell 10.6 percent to P2.1 billion, mainly due to the absence of asset sale gains from last year.

Revenues grew 28.5 percent to P55.1 billion while systemwide sales surged more than 31 percent to P78.6 billion as the fast-food giant opened 111 new branches to end with 6,542 stores worldwide.

“We are on track to achieving our 550 to 600 new store target for 2023,” Jollibee CEO Ernest Tanmantiong said in a statement.

 READ: Jollibee group sets record store expansion in 2023

“We delivered strong operating profit growth despite continued macro challenges. We remain focused on navigating through these uncertainties and are confident in our ability to deliver another year of strong growth,” he added.

Removing the impact of new branch openings, same store sales grew 22.4 percent during the period, driven by Philippine operations (+31.6 percent) and international (+8.8 percent).

“Our first quarter financial results reflected continued strong momentum, delivering another quarter of strong top-line and operating income growth,” Tanmantiong said.

Jollibee’s profits rose as gross profit margin expanded to 18.2 percent during the quarter from 16.1 percent last year.

It said easing store and manufacturing costs helped counter higher raw material and supply chain expenses.

“We remain focused on continued improvement in our business fundamentals, which resulted in sustained gross profit margin expansion and significant growth in underlying profit performance,” Jollibee chief financial officer Richard Shin said on Wednesday.

“We are confident in our ability to execute our strategies and deliver our financial goals for 2023,” he added.