Fastfood chain operator Jollibee Foods Corp. said Tuesday net income in 2016 jumped 24.6 percent to P6.14 billion from P4.93 billion in 2015, after it opened a record number of stores last year.
Jollibee said in a disclosure to the stock exchange it opened a total of 340 stores last year, including 243 in the Philippines and 97 overseas, including China, the United Sates, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
This is the highest number of store openings in a single year in the history of the fast-food firm. As a result 2016 systemwide sales”•a measure of all sales to customers both from company-owned and franchised stores”•grew 14.1 percent to P149.1 billion from P130.7 billion in 2015.
Revenues climbed 13.1 percent to P113.9 billion in 2016 from P100.7 billion a year ago.
Jollibee said to sustain the company’s growth, it would spend P14 billion in capital expenditures for 2017. Of the P14-billion programmed spending, P7.6 billion will be for store expansion and renovation and P5.6 billion for commissary investment.
“In 2016 we opened the most number of new stores in JFC’s history. This was made possible by improving the return on investment on our stores and by increasing our organization capability to build and open more stores in better locations and with better quality than ever before on a worldwide basis,” Jollibee chief executive Ernesto Tanmantiong said.
“We look forward to continued strong profitable growth in the years ahead in the Philippines and abroad,” Tanmantiong said.
Jollibee said in the four quarter alone, it registered a 63.7-percent growth in net income to P1.75 billion from P1.07 billion booked in the same quarter in 2015, on the back of a 7-percent growth in same-store sales.
Same-store sales pertains to sales of restaurants that were already open for at least 15 months. It excludes sales of new stores.
Fourth-quarter systemwide sales in the Philippines grew 14 percent while foreign business rose 14.5 percent, with China increasing by 6 percent, the US by 19.4 percent and Southeast Asia and the Middle East by 33 percent, each.
This represented Jollibee’s foreign business’ highest quarterly sales growth in 2016, driven by the recovery in China, particularly the Yonghe King brand.
Jollibee had a total network of 2,642 stores in the Philippines and 611 stores overseas as of end-2016. Share price of Jollibee closed lower by P1 to P206 Tuesday.