Jollibee, the fast-food restaurant that has a jolly bee as its logo, has for a long time been making this country proud and firmly planting the Philippine flag in places and among peoples where it had not been before.
At a time of growing concern regarding the persistent weakness of Philippine external trade, one brand is conquering one foreign market after another and proudly displaying the Philippine flag in the process.
The brand is Jollibee, which Tony Tan Caktiong and his brothers created in the late 1970s in a single store. That was long ago. Today, Jollibee is working toward achieving its goal of 5,000 branches worldwide in the next five years.
The latest feather in the Jollibee brand’s cap is its having been chosen by the ASEAN 500 2024 report of Brand Finance, a global brand valuation consultancy, as the most valuable restaurant brand in ASEAN. Brand Finance noted a 51-percent surge in the Jollibee brand’s value to $2.3 billion.
Brand Finance annually conducts over 6,000 brand valuation on the basis of original market research and publishes over 100 reports that rank the value of brands in the international marketplace.
Among ASEAN’s most valuable brands in four sectors – food, retail, hospitality and leisure and tourism – the Jollibee brand ranked 23rd.
Mang Inasal and Chowking, two other members of the Jollibee Group of companies, did not do badly, either. In fact, they did very well for themselves too.
Brand Finance chose Mang Inasal, which was acquired by the Jollibee Group from Edgar Sia in a celebrated P3-billion deal, as ASEAN’s second most valuable restaurant brand. Mang Inasal also won recognition as ASEAN’s fastest-growing restaurant brand.
Chowking, which combines the cuisines of the Philippines and China, was chosen by Brand Finance as ASEAN’s third most valuable restaurant brand.
The selection of Jollibee, Mang Inasal and Chowking by Brand Finance as the three most valuable restaurant brands in the ten countries that make up ASEAN is nothing short of a major feat for the Jollibee Group. It bears remembering that ASEAN encompasses countries with national cuisines that have steadily been gaining international appeal – namely, the cuisines of Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia.
The success achieved by the Jollibee brand is a minor, though by no means insignificant, part of the success recorded by Jollibee on a worldwide basis. The U.S., Canada, the U.K., Italy and UAE – Jollibee has established itself in these big markets. Jollibee Group management has made no secret of its ambition to become one of the five most valuable restaurant brands in the world.
Jollibee, the fast-food restaurant that has a jolly bee as its logo, has for a long time been making this country proud and firmly planting the Philippine flag in places and among peoples where it had not been before.
Our country badly needs heroes. The hero may be a person, like a gymnastics-competition gold medalist or an international singing-competition winner. Or it may be a product. The Jollibee brand is the latter kind of hero.
Email: llagasjessa@yahoo.com
