LOCAL fast-food giant Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC) on Wednesday said it is set to open its first flagship Jollibee stores in three different milestone locations—the United Kingdom, Manhattan in the US and Macau in China—as part of its global expansion plans.
The company said the expansion is part of the company’s plan to even out the share of domestic to international sales.
The first Jollibee store in the UK will have its grand opening on October 20. A few weeks before that, the Macau branch will hold its grand opening on September 28.
“The Manhattan, New York, store will open within a few months,” the company said.
“JFC is bringing the company’s well-loved brand to Filipinos abroad to give them a ‘taste of home,’” the company said.
On top of serving Filipinos overseas, the company said it has seen the success of Jollibee in catering to local markets. All of its customers in Vietnam and Brunei Darussalam are locals.
Jollibee is the fastest-growing chain in Vietnam. It is one of the top fast-food chains in Brunei. In Hong Kong and Singapore where it has added more stores, more than half of its customers are locals, the company said.
In 2013 JFC became the No. 1 restaurant company in Asia in terms of market capitalization and is now the world’s largest Asian restaurant company. The fast-food giant is now aiming to be among the top 5 largest restaurant companies in the world in terms of market capitalization.
To achieve this, the company said it has identified focusing on the two largest economies in the world, China and United States, and for continued expansion in other parts of the world, while sustaining business growth in the Philippines.
The company said its growth locally is so strong that the growth of its international business cannot keep up.