Jollibee wants bigger bite of North America, to open 28 stores in US, Canada

Homegrown food chain Jollibee Food Corp. (JFC) is set to take a bigger bite of the international market, with plans to open 28 new stores in North America this year.

In a regulatory filing on Monday, JFC confirmed it plans to open 19 stores in the United States and another nine in Canada, as it targets to have 300 stores in North America by 2024.

Jollibee ended the third quarter of 2020 with a net loss of P1.58 billion, marking a 194.5% drop from the P1.67 billion net income recorded the same period in 2019. This brought the nine-month net loss down 424.4% to P13.5 billion versus the P4.1-billion net income in 2019.

"We are now focusing our effort in rebuilding the business in a changed environment," JFC chief executive officer Ernesto Tanmantiong said in November 2020.

"While the negative impact of the crisis is still affecting us, as we reopen stores, we are introducing new products, resuming strong marketing campaigns, strengthening our systems and infrastructure particularly for digital connections with our customers and for off- premise consumption of our products and opening of new stores mostly in our international business," he added.

Jollibee ended September 2020 with a total of 1,185 operating stores, after 19 were closed due to the lockdown restrictions implemented to curb the spread of COVID-19, all of which co-owned by the company.

The company reported a total of 45 Jollibee stores in the United States, and 10 in Canada as of September. It also operates 33 Red Ribbon stores and 15 Chowking stores in North America.

In the Philippines, JFC also operates quick-service restaurants Greenwich, Yong He King, Hong Zhuang Yuan, Mang Inasal, Burger King, Highlands Coffee, PHO24, Hard Rock Cafe, Dunkin' Donuts, Smashburger, Tim Ho Wan, Tortas Frontera, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, and Panda Express.

Shares in the company opened Monday at P192.60 apiece, up from last Friday's finish of P192.50 per share.—AOL, GMA News