Fastfood giant Jollibee Foods Corp. plans to bring Vietnamese chain PHO24 into the Philippines.
Jollibee said in a disclosure to the stock exchange wholly owned unit Fresh N’ Foods Inc. would introduce PHO24, which serves traditional Vietnamese dishes with rice noodles as its core products.
PHO24 is owned by one of Jollibee’s joint ventures, SuperFoods Group.
The fast-food chain earlier reported that Superfoods Group aimed to serve its customers in Asia and key cities in the world with high-quality Vietnamese food at affordable prices through PHO24.
Jollibee operated 2,896 restaurants in the country and 943 stores overseas as of end March this year.
Jollibee has been aggressive with its overseas expansion, with the opening of a store at Brunei International Airport and additional outlets in Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates last year.
Jollibee said the opening of new stores overseas was in line with its vision to be among the top five largest restaurant companies in the world.
The newest store in Brunei, located in front of the airport’s arrival area, is a part of the company’s response to the strong market demand for the brand.
“When we started our first Jollibee Brunei branch back in 1987, we wanted to appeal not only to Filipinos, but to locals as well. Thirty years on, we are very happy to see the growth of Jollibee into a brand which is well-loved by the Bruneian community,” Jollibee chief executive Ernesto Tanmantiong earlier said.
Meanwhile, the sixth Jollibee store in Hong Kong opened in Wan Chai, which has a population of around 180,000 citizens and 15,000 Filipinos.