Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC) said Friday it expects to see improved earnings next year and to return to normal growth in 2022.
“We expect strong growth in sales and profit in 2021 versus 2020, to a point close [to] our levels in 2019,” JFC President and CEO Ernesto Tanmantiong said during the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting.
He added: “Starting in 2022, we expect that JFC will grow at least in line with its historical growth rate of about 15% per year. In the succeeding years, we expect JFC to grow at that rate, which is doubling the size of its business every five years.”
Mr. Tanmantiong also noted that the group is already experiencing sales recovery in the United States, Vietnam, Hong Kong, and Brunei as governments ease community quarantine restrictions.
“In the US, delivery, drive-through and take-out offset the loss in our dine-in sales,” he said.
Significant improvements in sales under the more relaxed community quarantine have also been made in the Philippines, Mr. Tanmantiong continued.
JFC likewise expects its Smashburger and Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (CBTL) businesses, which it bought in 2018 and 2019, to post profits next year.
“All these initiatives will drive profitability and sales, and we expect CBTL’s performance to improve by the fourth quarter of this year and become profitable by next year, 2021,” JFC Chairman Tony Tan Caktiong said.
On Smashburger’s profitability, he said: “Our target is to make it profitable by 2021. As part of JFC’s business transformation plan, Smashburger will close its non-performing and poorly located stores. For stores that will remain open, we will adjust the store box economics to make them profitable even at lower sales levels. And we will also continue to open stores in very good locations.”
He added the company remains open to opportunities that may arise. “But as always, we are very selective and stringent with our acquisitions.”
JFC reported an attributable net loss of P1.79 billion in the first quarter, a turnaround from profits of P1.46 billion the same period last year.
The company had cut its 2020 capital expenditure budget by 63% to P5.2 billion. But this will still cover the establishment of 171 new company-owned stores and renovation of 96 existing stores.
JFC currently has 5,945 stores, of which 3,317 are in the Philippines and the rest are spread across China, Vietnam, Brunei, Hong Kong, Singapore, Macau, Malaysia, Indonesia, United States, Canada, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Italy, United Kingdom and Guam.
Among the brands it controls are Jollibee, Chowking, Greenwich, Red Ribbon, Mang Inasal, Burger King, PHO24, Yonghe King, Hong Zhuang Yuan, Dunkin’ Donuts (China), Highlands Coffee, Hard Rock Cafe (Vietnam), Smashburger and CBTL. — Arjay L. Balinbin
