Jollibee expands in Malaysia

MANILA, Philippines — Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC), the listed Asian food conglomerate, is expanding its presence in Malaysia with a plan to open at least 120 stores within 10 years starting in 2022.

JFC, through its Singapore-based wholly owned subsidiary Golden Plate Pte. Ltd. (GPPL), entered into an agreement to form a joint venture company with Singaporean retail tycoon Patrick Chong’s Beeworks Investment Pte. Ltd. (BIPL).

The joint venture will own and operate Jollibee stores in West Malaysia which covers the country’s capital, Kuala Lumpur.

BIPL is majority-owned by Chong, and is the franchisee for Jollibee in East Malaysia which covers Kota Kinabalu.

Chong has been a longstanding investor in Malaysia through his company  The Luxasia Group, an omnichannel leader in luxury beauty and lifestyle brands.

Under the agreement, the parties will establish a company in Malaysia which will be owned 30 percent by GPPL and 70 percent by BIPL and will have the exclusive license rights to develop the Jollibee brand in West Malaysia.

Proponents will initially invest $8 million to the joint venture of which up to $2.4 million will be contributed by GPPL in proportion to its ownership in the business.

The expansion in West Malaysia strengthens JFC’s presence outside the Philippines particularly in Southeast Asia which is JFC’s fastest growing region with a total of 885 stores.

In the region, the food giant has presence in Vietnam with 621 stores, Singapore 72 stores, Malaysia 104 and Indonesia 88. JFC’s Southeast Asia business accounted for 6.7 percent of its global system wide sales.

The creation of the joint venture for Jollibee West Malaysia will accelerate the growth even more and will help make Southeast Asia a more significant business for the JFC group, the company said in its disclosure.

The Jollibee Group of Companies operates 17 brands in 33 countries.

As of June 30, it was operating 5,816 stores, with 3,192 in the Philippines and 2,624 outside the Philippines mostly in North America with 353 stores, China 407, and Vietnam  682.

Its largest brands in terms of global store network are Jollibee (1,487), The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (1,051), Chowking (607), Red Ribbon (527), Yonghe King (364), Smashburger (239) and Mang Inasal (585).

Tan Caktiong said the goal is to become one of the top five restaurant companies in the world.

– Iris Gonzales