JFC readies 800 more stores this year

March 15, 2025 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — Food giant Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC) is planning to invest as much as P21 billion this year for the opening of up to 800 stores to expand its international footprint.

JFC chief financial and risk officer Richard Shin yesterday announced that the Jollibee Group is allocating between P18 billion and P21 billion for capital expenditures in 2025.

The objective for the fast food leader in the Philippines is to open 700 to 800 stores across brands and across regions, hoping that this will raise its system-wide sales by as much as 12 percent and store network by up to eight percent.

Shin understands this would be a challenging task for JFC given that certain brands and regions are performing below expectations.

However, he believes the company can sustain its expansion with the Philippine market and the Jollibee brand as its backbone.

“As anticipated, China business experienced strong headwinds, putting pressures in both topline and bottom line. The performance of our better burger category was also below our expectations,” Shin said.

“While our same store sales growth turned positive during the fourth quarter, we need to further grow average daily sales and continue to work on profitability for this category,” he added.

JFC booked an 18-percent growth in profit to P10.32 billion in 2024 from P8.77 billion in 2023, as the company benefitted from higher revenue and a larger coverage.

Its system-wide sales, measuring all revenues from purchases, rose by 13 percent to P390.28 billion from P345.32 billion, on double-digit growth in domestic and foreign outlets.

JFC CEO Ernesto Tanmantiong said the Jollibee Group stepped up its expansion pace when it added a new line in 2024 by acquiring Compose Coffee.

As the Jollibee Group continues to grow, Tanmantiong said the company is poised to triple its profit by 2028 as promised.

“Our results for 2024 keep us on track to deliver our ambition by 2028 of tripling our net income attributable to equity holders of the parent company and growing return on invested capital to 20 percent. We head into 2025 with full confidence in our ability to further drive growth and deliver value to our shareholders,” Tanmantiong said.

As of 2024, JFC manages a 9,766-strong store network, comprising 3,382 in the Philippines and 6,384 abroad.

Overseas, the Jollibee Group is present with 580 in China; 369 in North America; 388 in Europe, Middle East and Africa; 850 with Highlands Coffee, mainly in Vietnam; 1,232 with The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf; 336 with Milksha; and 2,629 with Compose Coffee, all in South Korea.