MANILA, Philippines—Local fastfood giant Jollibee Foods Corp. hiked its fourth quarter 2011 net profit by 10 percent to P1.16 billion as a double-digit expansion in business volume alongside cost control measures offset declining margins.
For the full year 2011, JFC’s net profit attributable to equity holders of parent firm rose by a modest 0.5 percent to P3.2 billion as high input costs—especially in the first semester—gnawed at its operations.
New acquisitions as well as the strong growth in its overseas business, however, allowed the company to reverse the profit decline recorded in the first half of the year.
JFC’s fourth quarter system-wide sales—a measure of all sales to consumers both from company-owned and franchised stores—grew by 18 percent year-on-year.
Philippine sales expanded by 17.8 percent which was outpaced by the 19-percent growth in its overseas business.
Specifically, its business in China grew by 27.5 percent while Southeast Asia and Middle East rose by 23.3 percent.
Domestically, JFC said the acquisition of grilled chicken restaurant chain Mang Inasal and Burger King contributed 9.2 percent of the 17.8 percent sales growth while the rest of the brands grew by 8.6 percent. in the fourth quarter compared to a year ago.
JFC, thus, posted its best quarter in 2011 in the October to December period, when earnings per share likewise expanded by 9.8 percent. This was even as net income margin slowed to 6.5 percent compared to 7.1 percent year-on-year arising from raw material cost increases, which were partly offset by some belt-tightening measures.
Net income as a percentage of revenues improved to 6.5 percent from 4.6 percent in the first nine months of the year.
“This improvement offset the negative profit growth rate in the first half of the year and brought 2011 profit at par with the previous year,” JFC said.
Last year was also marked by anemic domestic economic growth of 3.7 percent compared to 7.6 percent in 2010, which was extraordinarily strong due to election spending.