Jollibee eyes 2-digit sales hike

Fastfood giant Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC) is banking on its continuous branch expansion and higher consumer spending to sustain its profit growth this year.

The company is targeting a doubledigit growth in sales this year, continuing the trend recorded in the first quarter, company executives said yesterday.

“Our first quarter profits were up by about eight percent and our system-wide sales up 17 percent. We hope that we would be able to at least continue this or improve it,” JFC chief finance officer Ysmael Baysa said.

“We are hoping to have good doubledigit sales growth as far as sales are concerned,” Baysa told reporters after the company’s annual stockholders meeting.

JFC posted an 8.1-percent growth in net income to P672 million in the first quarter. Revenues reached P16.49 billion, up from P13.97 billion a year ago.

Asked about its second quarter performance, Baysa said: “Growth has been sustained and also store openings. We have a very good momentum going for us.”

Baysa said the company was encouraged by its performance in the previous quarters but consumer spending might be affected by debt concerns in the euro zone.

“We do not know to what extent these countries might be affected if there is another financial crisis,” Baysa said.

“On the Philippine side, we are very optimistic in the current developments in the country,” JFC chairman and chief executive Tony Tan Caktiong said.

To date, Philippine operations account for 80 percent of the company’s entire business, with the remaining 20 percent taken up by operations abroad.

“We would like to target 50-50 probably in five to seven years’ time,” Tan Caktiong said.

JFC has programmed a capital spending of P5.7 billion this year, lower than the P7.4 billion capital expenditures last year.

The fastfood giant, which will stay in its core business, plans to open 300 new stores this year, of which half will be in the Philippines.

It will be the biggest expansion so far by JFC, eclipsing the 260 new stores opened last year, of which 167 were in the Philippines.

In the coming years, Tan Caktiong said JFC is targeting to fasttrack its expansion.

In terms of acquisition, Tan Caktiong said the company has no targets so far but it will introduce a Jollibee store in Singapore this year.

The group opened 39 new stores in the first quarter, 26 of which are in the Philippines and 13 overseas.

This brings the group’s total restaurant network to 2,513 worldwide as of endMarch 2012. Of the total, 2,004 are located in the Philippines (Jollibee 752, Chowking 381, Greenwich 204, Red Ribbon 207, Mang Inasal 436 and Burger King 24).