Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC) on Tuesday said it has completed the incorporation of Yoshinoya Jollibee Foods Inc., its joint venture with Yoshinoya which will serve as the Japanese company’s vehicle for its expansion in the Philippines.
The joint venture is 50 percent owned by Jollibee while the remaining half will be owned by Yoshinoya International Philippines Inc., which has secured approval as a foreign retailer from the Board of Investments on May 5.
Yoshinoya is Jollibee’s first Japanese food chain.
The said JV company will initially have an authorized capital stock of P130 million and will have its own management, with Jollibee providing support.
The Yoshinoya brand will be a strong addition to the foreign franchised brands currently being operated by Jollibee in the Philippines, the company said. The others are Burger King, with 98 stores; PHO 24; and Panda Express.
“These brands contribute 3.5 percent to the Philippine business’ system wide sales. Yoshinoya’s contribution to JFC’s system wide sales will not be significant yet as it has very limited number of stores, but it has huge opportunity to increase sales by taking advantage of the strong demand for food delivery. Yoshinoya’s food, particularly its signature Gyudon beef bowl holds very well for delivery,” the company said.
Jollibee earlier said it plans to expand the Yoshinoya brand to about 50 stores from the current handful of branches. Yoshinoya is a beef bowl fast-food business based in Japan and one of the largest and most recognized Japanese restaurant brands globally, with over 2,000 stores worldwide.
Yoshinoya Philippines is a unit subsidiary of Asia Yoshinoya International SDN BHD and Yoshinoya Holdings Co. Ltd., the trademark owner of the Yoshinoya System.
It currently operates three Yoshinoya stores in the Philippines.
JFC operates the largest food service and restaurant company in the Philippines with 5 wholly-owned brands—Jollibee, Chowking, Greenwich, Red Ribbon and Mang Inasal.
Jollibee said it aims to become the leading market developer of foreign restaurant brands in the country. In the long-term, the company said it plans to have close to 400 stores for its foreign franchised brands in the Philippines.
“JFC sees high potential for broad acceptance across the country for these foreign franchised brands as it expects expansion of the upper middle class in the country in the long-term. This will create demand for a wider variety of food products including those from foreign brands,” it said.
“The goal of these foreign franchised brands is to contribute to the sustainable growth of the domestic business by successfully building the brands and growing each brand to be the leader in its market segment. These foreign franchised brands also create benefits such as economies of scale, synergies in organization and supply chain allowing them to be profitable in a short period of time.”