Singapore store is Jollibee’s top global branch

MANILA, Philippines - Jollibee Foods Corp.’s first store in Singapore has become the fast food giant’s top outlet among its 884 stores worldwide.

A report on Yahoo! Finance Singapore, quoting Jollibee’s vice-president for international operations Dennis Flores, said the Jollibee branch at Lucky Plaza on Orchard Road has become the chain’s top performer in terms of sales.

“Sales performance exceeded expectations,” Flores said, noting that an estimated 35,000 customers visited the Singapore store on the first week of its operation alone.

Yahoo! Finance Singapore interviewed Flores before the store’s  formal ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday, which was attended by Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, Trade and Industry Secretary Gregory Domingo, Temasek Holdings CEO Ho Ching and former Singapore president S. R. Nathan.

Flores, citing point-of-sales data, was quoted as saying that not only Filipinos patronize the store, since 40 percent of the weekday lunch crowd is made up of Singaporeans.

This was in spite of a Facebook page calling for a boycott of the outlet in protest over the alleged hiring of Filipinos over Singaporeans.

The company had earlier clarified that nearly 80 percent of its staff are Singapore residents and citizens.

The Yahoo report also noted the company, encouraged by the long queues of customers that were seen since its soft opening in March, plans to open two more stores in Singapore, one of which is likely to be operational before the end of the year.

The report also quoted Flores as saying that Jollibee is planning a take-out counter at its Lucky Plaza store.

Flores said Jollibee is targeting Indonesia as its next market within the next two years and plans to open more stores in Vietnam, where there are already 41 stores. “Vietnam is a priority country,” said Flores.

An outlet in Macau and in the Middle East are also in the pipeline.

“Europe is in the horizon but we have no plans yet,” Flores told Yahoo! Finance Singapore.

Jollibee has a total of 97 Jollibee stores outside the country, including the United States.