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FAST-FOOD giant Jollibee Foods Corp. has overseas
Filipinos to thank for helping it grow 1,700 stores, as
well as to meet its target 10,000 stores a dozen years
hence.
Ernesto
Tanmantiong, president of the publicly listed company,
said targeting overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) is part
of a two-pronged approach for international expansion.
“With…lessons learned, we are again forging our paths
into the international markets, this time with quite a
little more success than before,” Tanmantiong said in
his keynote speech at the 16th Philippine International
Franchise Conference that began Wednesday.
Sharing
the “Secrets of Success,” Tanmantiong said the company
“target[s] the mainstream market where the local
population is huge, such as in countries like China,
Vietnam, India and Indonesia.”
“Secondly, we target the OFW market, particularly in
countries where there are large communities of Filipinos
like the USA, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Middle East and
Europe.”
Government agencies estimate 8 million Filipinos are
working and living permanently in 190 countries.
Tanmantiong added, “The OFW market is especially
promising because it can eventually open up to include
the locals of the countries they are located in.”
“In
Brunei, for instance, we witness this phenomenon wherein
we started our operations mainly to cater to the OFWs,
and now see more and more locals dining at our stores.”
Tanmantiong claims Jollibee, known for its sweet
spaghetti and aromatic hamburgers, is the top
quick-service restaurant in Brunei with a total of 11
stores.
He said
competitor KFC has only eight stores and McDonald’s only
has one.
“While
the multinationals have snubbed this market for its tiny
size, we came here first to serve the many [Filipinos],
and now to share the mission to all.”
Tanmantiong said 85 percent of Jollibee’s staff and
customers are local Bruneians. “If you think about it,
there are now actually two countries in the world where
Jollibee is No. 1.” After putting up Jollibee 30 years
ago, the Jollibee Group of Companies now operates the
largest restaurant network in the Philippines.
As of
June, Jollibee has close to 1,500 stores in the country,
plus 244 outlets across China, Southeast Asia, the
Middle East and the United States.
Tanmantiong said they are opening two more stores in
Vietnam this year, adding to the current nine stores in
the Southeast Asian country, where the government says
at least 2,000 Filipinos work there.
Tanmantiong added that it has attempted to introduce
Jollibee to a predominantly Hispanic market—a “huge
sector,” he says—in Panorama City in the United States.
That is the 18th store the company has before putting up
the 19th in the fourth quarter of this year, its first
store in the East Coast in Woodside, Queens, New York.
“I hear
that Filipinos on this side of America are all abuzz;
waiting for that moment they can set foot into a
Jollibee store again.”
Tanmantiong described the company’s entry into Jeddah,
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), as exciting.
“In
Jeddah, our first entry to the Middle East, we are very
excited to tap into the huge potential of catering to
our OFW market.”
Government estimates nearly a million OFWs are in the
KSA.
JFC
opened its Jeddah, KSA, branch in June, according to
Tanmantiong. He noted, however, that “China is going to
be the toughest market for Jollibee to enter because the
two big giants are so well entrenched, having more than
a thousand stores.”
“However, we believe that the market is still big enough
for a third player.”
Tanmantiong said that by 2020, JFC would have 10,000
stores all over the world.
“We only
have 12 years left while the 1,700 stores that we
currently have took 30 years to build.” |
