Jollibee to spend P1.5B for store expansion

Jollibee Foods Corp., the Philippines' largest fastfood chain operator, said on Wednesday it has set aside P1.5 billion this year to put up more hamburger outlets and cake shops both here and abroad. The firm, which started as a hamburger booth in 1978, has spawned other eateries like Chinese fastfood Chowking, pasta and pizza restaurant Greenwich, pastry shop Delifrance, and cake shop Red Ribbon. Company chairman and chief executive officer Tony Tan Caktiong said around 95 to 100 stores of Jollibee, Chowking, Red Ribbon, Greenwich, and Delifrance would be put up here. It also operates China's Yonghe. It will also launch 20-25 branches of Jollibee, Chowking, Red Ribbon and Yonghe in China, Indonesia and the United States. It hopes to operate a Jollibee store in Guangzhou, China by yearend. "That would serve as our pilot branch there. The rest would be new Yonghe stores," said Tan Caktiong. Jollibee plans to open in October a Red Ribbon branch in New Jersey, USA. Jollibee said it expects to record lower sales in the second quarter amid weak consumer spending. "Indications showed that sales growth for the second quarter would be slower than the first quarter because the consumers ate out less in the last quarter," said Ysmael Baysa, Jollibee's chief finance officer . Jollibee, which will announce its second quarter earnings results next month, on Wednesday closed flat at P33. - GMANews.TV