Jollibee Foods Corp., the biggest fast-foo chain in the Philippines, opened new stores in Europe and North America as part of an aggressive overseas expansion.
Jollibee said in a statement it opened a store in Liverpool, United Kingdom on Sept. 3 and another store in Dallas, Texas in the US on Aug. 20.
“Jollibee continues to grow in both North America and Europe. In North America, the Jollibee brand is seeing double-digit growth, with our Chowking and Red Ribbon brands also performing well,” Jollibee group chief executive Ernest Tanmantiong said.
“Our customer base around the world continues to grow as we tap local consumers within each market—expanding it from Filipinos living abroad to a wider, more mainstream market,” he said.
Tanmantiong said expansion plans in Europe were ongoing with another store opening in Leicester in the UK before the end of 2020.
The company earlier targeted to have 50 restaurants in Europe over the next three to five years.
Jollibee said the Liverpool opening achieved double its initial sales forecast, while the Texas location also exceeded its target and served close to 2000 customers on its opening day.
“What is really striking at Liverpool’s opening week was that 40 percent of customers were new to the Jollibee brand, and they were interested to try the food for the first time. This increased to 50 percent by the week after, which speaks to the positive reaction of local Liverpudlians to Jollibee,” Jollibee president for Europe, Middle East, Asia and Australia Dennis Flores said.
Jollibee opened its first store in West Plano, Texas on Aug. 20 to a long line of cars snaking around the store’s driveway to the nearby highway.
“Despite the effects of the pandemic, the Jollibee brand’s system-wide sales growth remains positive,” said Jollibee president for North America Rowel Vijandre.
Jollibee is set to open more stores in California and Canada before the end of the year.
Jollibee’s store in Dallas marks the brand’s 45th store in the US, while the Liverpool location is its third in Europe.
Jollibee’s flagship brand has over 1,400 stores across the globe, with more stores scheduled to open this year as part of the group’s strategy to selectively open new stores in well-situated locations.
Jollibee reported a net loss of P11.96 billion in the first half, a reversal of the P2.5-billion net income in the same period last year because of the impact of the health crisis.
Net loss in the second quarter reached P10.17 billion, including P7 billion representing the cost of business transformation.
