Jollibee to open 100 Pho24 stores

JOLLIBEE Foods Corp. (JFC) on Monday said it will open 100 branches of its Vietnamese brand Pho24 in the country within the year.

The company said it will start with 3 new store openings for the year, the first of which is scheduled in February and will be located at the Jollibee Tower in Ortigas Center in Pasig. It did not provide details for the other branches.

Pho24 has been in the country since 2018, when Jollibee bought a controlling stake in the Vietnamese firm that owns the chain, but it is only now that JFC is expanding the brand.

The first branch is located at the Double Dragon Meridian Park in Pasay.

The chain, which was previously positioned to the middle market but became a mass brand when Jollibee bought into the firm, serves Vietnamese dishes with pho as its signature product.

“We are looking forward to the new store openings of Pho24 this year as part of plans for the longterm strategic growth of the Jollibee Group,” Joseph Tanbuntiong, Jollibee’s

country business group head for the Philippines, said.

Tanbuntiong said JFC is also developing Pho24’s own delivery platform to cater to the increasing demand for its products and to reach new customers. JFC will also launch new products.

“We have seen the growing love of Filipinos for authentic Vietnamese cuisine, and Pho24’s expansion in the Philippines provides Filipino foodies with distinctly different pho meals that are both tasty and nutritious.”

Despite the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, the company launched in the second quarter last year its Facebook-based ordering platform. It also launched 2 new rice meals—saigon Fried Chicken and Shaking beef—that have contributed significantly to its total average daily sales. It also has two variants of home meal kits, the beef fillet and fried spring rolls.

Aside from the lone branch in the Philippines, Pho24 has 42 branches in other Southeast Asian countries—26 in Vietnam and 16 in Indonesia.