JOLLIBEE’S 6-MONTH NET UP 16% TO P4B

Fast-food giant Jollibee Foods Corp. grew its net profit in the first semester by 16.1 percent year-on-year to P4.05 billion as it unlocked higher earnings from its globalizing store network.

For the second quarter, net profit attributable to equity holders of the parent company rose by 15.1 percent year-onyear to P2.25 billion.

System-wide sales, or sales from company-owned and franchised stores—grew by 26.8 per- cent year-on-year in the second quarter to P53.9 billion while for the first half of the year, systemwide sales grew by 23.2 percent to P99.9 billion.

Revenue was up 23.8 percent year-on-year in the second quarter to P40.3 billion and by 21.4 percent year-on-year in the first semester to P75.1 billion.

Excluding the impact of the consolidation of US hamburger chain Smashburger effective April 17, system-wide sales grew by 18.1 percent in the second quarter, driven by the 7.2-percent same-store sales growth, 8.9 percent growth in store network and 2 percent due to the impact of change in foreign exchange rates. System-wide sales grew by 18.7 percent for the first half without Smashburger.

Sales in all regions were strong in the second quarter, led by the North America business which grew by 195.6 percent due to the consolidation of Smashburger. Even without Smashbuger, business would have grown by 23.6 percent year-on-year.

Business out of Europe, Middle East and Asia ex-Philippines rose by 46.1 percent during the quarter while China business expanded by 17.4 percent. The Philippine business grew by 15.8 percent.

Growth in the domestic business—which accounted for 70 percent of Jollibee’s worldwide system wide sales—was driven by an 8-percent same-store sales growth and 7.8-percent increase in store network.

Operating income for the quarter and the first half of the year increased by 19.7 percent and 14 percent, respectively, higher than the 7.7 percent operating income growth for the first quarter of 2018.