Franchising sector in the Philippines seen growing 8% to 10%
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MANILA, Philippines — A local trade association of franchising firms expect their revenues to grow by 8 percent to 10 percent in 2025. Industrywide earnings are projected to hit P800 million this year.
The latest forecast is slightly more conservative than the 2024 projection of 10 to 12 percent.
But Chris Lim, president of the Philippine Franchising Association (PFA), on Thursday said this year’s expectations were “still aggressive.”
Lim said this reflected a more measured outlook for the sector amid evolving market conditions.
“We do know there’s a lot of headwinds around the world. And we don’t know where inflation, or I think more importantly, interest rates are going,” Lim told reporters.
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This was on the sidelines of the Franchise Asia Philippines 2025 International Conference held at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City.
“Services is actually one of the faster-growing sectors.” he said. “As the market matures, service franchising becomes actually an equally important sector. But of course, food will still drive most of it.”
When asked whether the planned US tariffs have impacted the industry’s outlook, Lim confirmed that they have.
“The ones that (it) will have impacted are those that have a lot of exposure to the US market. But even that will be a bit muted. I think what’s good in the franchise sector is they’ve been diversifying their supply base,” Limon said.
Meanwhile, PFA chairp Sheryll Quintana noted a growing influx of foreign franchises entering the Philippine market.
Quintana said that other member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are increasingly seeing the Philippines as a valuable and strategic market for expansion.
“That’s why they’re coming in here,” Quintana said. She estimates that around 10 brands entered the Philippine market last year. Many of these are from Thailand. Others are from South Korea, from outside the region.
To date, Quintana said there are about 120,000 franchise enterprises operating in the country. These have collectively generated around 1 million jobs.
