EARNINGS of Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC) jumped 18.1% in the April to June period, fueled by the growth of its stores in Southeast Asia, North America and Middle East amid the company’s aggressive worldwide store expansion.

The homegrown fastfood giant in a statement on Monday said its net income attributable to the parent increased to P1.956 billion, against the P1.656 billion posted in the second quarter of 2016.

System-wide sales, which measures all sales to consumers from both company-owned and franchised stores, rose 14.7% to P42.54 billion in the second quarter.

Jollibee’s Southeast Asian business, excluding the Philippines, showed the fastest acceleration in terms of system-wide sales, up by 42% in the quarter. North America followed at 32.5%, the Middle East by 32%, China by 17.2%, and the Philippines by 12.5%.

JFC noted these figures exclude the impact of 2016 divestments and the consolidation of the SuperFoods group, the company’s joint venture with Viet Thai International Joint Stock Co. Including SuperFoods, systemwide sales of JFC’s foreign business increased by 24.3%.

“These strong growth rates were driven by the acceleration of profit growth in foreign businesses, lower losses in joint ventures — which consist mostly of new businesses abroad, and lower income taxes,” the company said.

With this, JFC’s first half attributable profit amounted to P3.489 billion, up by 14.2% year on year, following a 13.5% growth in systemwide retail sales to P81.078 billion.

By the end of the first semester, JFC has spent a capital expenditure of P4.1 billion, up by 46% from the P2.8 billion from 2016’s first half, but less than a third of its 2017 capex of P14.7 billion. The accelerated spending is in line with the company’s efforts to further expand its store network, as it saw 157 store openings as of end June. Of this, 108 are located in the Philippines, while 49 are based abroad.

This brings the company’s worldwide store count to 3,570, keeping it on track to hit its target of 4,000 stores by end 2017.

Most of these are located in the Philippines at 2,701, with 1,005 under the Jollibee brand, 496 under Chowking, 257 for pizza chain Greenwich, 395 for Red Ribbon, 470 under Mang Inasal, and 78 under Burger King. Overseas, JFC has a total of 869 stores, spanning across China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Brunei, the Middle East, the United States, Singapore, Canada, and Australia.

JFC also has two joint ventures, namely a 48% partnership with 12 Hotpot in China that owns 16 stores, as well as a 40% stake in US-based Smashburger, composed of 362 outlets. These stores are excluded from the company’s consolidated store count, which would have added 378 more to its network.

Shares in JFC closed at P222 apiece on Monday, up 2.59% or P5.60. — Arra B. Francia

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