By Denise A. Valdez, Reporter
JOLLIBEE Foods Corp. (JFC) is pioneering a two-lane drive-thru system in the Philippines to address the growing volume of customers ordering through the transaction option.
The listed operator of fastfood brand Jollibee opened on Monday the country’s first-ever store with dual drive-thru lanes, located at the Petron gasoline station along the southbound road of South Luzon Expressway (SLEx).
“We expect for this particular store, like the one we have in Shell SLEx, (that there will be) a high rate of orders coming from drive-thru. Around 50-60% of sales are from drive-thru orders (in the Jollibee Shell SLEx branch),” Jon B. Villanueva, Jollibee vice-president for Restaurant Solutions, told reporters in a mix of Filipino and English during the store opening.
The new store at the Petron gas station is also Jollibee’s 1,200th store to date and 64th new store this year. It is scheduled to open nine more stores before 2019 ends and targets to launch around 100 more stores next year.
Mr. Villanueva said Jollibee is focused on improving customer experience at its already-wide network of stores, hence the investment in developing its ordering systems.
Aside from the two-lane drive-thru, Jollibee also recently launched self-ordering kiosks at select stores. The self-ordering kiosks are digital devices placed across or near the traditional cashier counter, where customers could order by tapping items on the large screen.
Mr. Villanueva said this feature is driving customers to order more in every transaction because they are enticed by the experience of tapping a screen to make an order.
“We’ve noticed that many of our customers enjoy and find it really convenient using our Self Order Kiosks. We are happy not only because these don’t just translate to more sales for us with increased transactions but an overall better customer experience to them,” he said.
Mr. Villanueva noted the company is already recording as much as 70% of transactions are made through self-ordering kiosks in some stores. The new store at Petron SLEx is Jollibee’s 56th that has such feature, and this number is expected to reach close to 70 before the year ends.
Come next year, Mr. Villanueva said Jollibee is targeting to have more than 200 stores with self-ordering kiosks.
Aside from Jollibee, JFC controls Chowking, Greenwich, Red Ribbon, Mang Inasal, Burger King and PHO24 stores in the Philippines. Its earnings fell 26% to P4.53 billion in the first nine months of the year.
Shares in JFC climbed 2.40 points or 1.08% to P223.60 each on Monday.
