Jollibee expanding footprint in premium quick service resto

MANILA, Philippines - Fastfood giant Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC) is expanding its footprint in the premium quick service restaurant business in the country.

“We are actually expanding Burger King that is geared for the AB market,” JFC chief financial officer Ysmael Baysa told reporters.

The listed fastfood chain will open 10 to 15 Burger King branches next year, fasttracking its expansion from 10 opened this year, Baysa said. As of end-September, the company had 29 Burger King stores nationwide.

“The upper income segment is growing in the Philippines so more and more, people are able to afford the premium products,” Baysa said.

In September 2011, JFC acquired a 54-percent stake in BK Titans Inc., owner of PERF Restaurants Inc. that is the Philippine franchise holder of Burger King. The remaining 46 percent is owned by the group led by courier service magnate Alberto Lina (33 percent) and telecommunications magnate Manuel V. Pangilinan (13 percent).

While the premium segment will not be bigger than the mass market served by JFC, the company will still pursue investments in the upper end of the market.

“We’ll see the opportunities but what’s important for now is for us to see closely how we are doing in Burger King, whether or not we will be able to compete and grow that very well,” Baysa said.

“We’re expanding it but we don’t open as many stores as in other brands,” Baysa said.

For this year, JFC committed to spend P5.5 billion to put up 300 new stores across all its brands here and abroad including Indonesia and China.

Meanwhile, Baysa said acquisitions will not be as frequent as before as JFC already has a strong presence in many brands and segments.

“We will still have joint ventures and acquisitions in the future but most likely the frequency will not be like before,” Baysa said.