Restaurant chain operator Jollibee Foods Corp. is increasing its 2022 capital expenditures by P10 billion to P17.8 billion from P7.8 billion it spent in 2021, after fourth-quarter net income returned to pre-pandemic levels.
Jollibee said in a disclosure to the stock exchange it allocated P10-billion in capital spending for the rollout of 500 new stores and renovation of existing outlets. It will use the balance of P7.8 billion to fund supply chain and business technology investments.
“We are prepared to make this level of investments if the economies fully re-open and sales growth remains strong,” Jollibee chief executive Ernesto Tanmantiong said.
“We see very strong expansion in different parts of our business particularly those in North America, China, Southeast Asia and Europe while we expect the Philippines to sustain its healthy profitable growth,” he said.
Jollibee reported a net income of P5.9 billion in 2021, a reversal from the P11.5-billion net loss it incurred in 2020.
The company said that in the fourth quarter, net income reached P3.2 billion, up by 59.6 percent from the same period in 2020 and by 3.7 percent from the 2019 level.
Operating income in 2021 amounted to P6.3 billion, about the same level in 2019 with a pre-pandemic operating income of P6.5 billion.
System-wide sales, a measure of all sales to consumers from company-owned and franchised stores, climbed 20.3 percent in 2021 to P211.9 billion.
Tanmantiong said system-wide sales in international business in the fourth quarter equaled the sales in the same period before the outbreak of the pandemic.
System-wide sales in the Philippines in the fourth quarter, however, were still 22.6 percent below the figure in the same period in 2019.
“We look forward to continuing strong recovery of the business in 2022 particularly if the restrictions in the Philippines are fully lifted, coupled with increased consumer spending during this election year,” Tanmantiong said.
Jollibee chief finance officer Ysmael Baysa said American brands Smashburger and The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf registered significant improvement in financial performance in the fourth quarter.
Smashburger reduced its losses by 80 percent, while CBTL became a profitable business.
Jollibee is one of Asia’s largest food service companies with 17 brands operating in 34 countries. As of end-2021, the group’s total store network reached 5,924 outlets, including 3,220 stores in the Philippines and 2,704 abroad.