Fast food giant operator Jollibee Foods Corp. said Tuesday it teamed up with one of the largest Asian food service companies to operate and expand the Yoshinoya brand in the Philippines.
Jollibee said in a disclosure to the stock exchange the 50:50 joint venture with Yoshinoya International Philippines Inc. would open 50 stores over the long term.
YIPI operates three Yoshinoya stores in the Philippines. Yoshinoya is a beef bowl business based in Japan and one of the largest and most recognized Japanese restaurant brands with over 2,000 stores worldwide.
“We are very pleased to enter this joint venture with the largest food service company in the Philippines. Jollibee will certainly have a significant positive impact on Yoshinoya’s business in the country, with its extensive consumer knowledge, operational focus and presence in the Philippines. This partnership presents us a great opportunity to increase the potential growth of Yoshinoya in the Philippines,” said Yasutaka Kawamura, chief executive and president of Yoshinoya Holdings Co. Ltd.
Jollibee chairman Tony Tan Caktiong said the partnership would enable the company to learn from Yoshinoya’s experience and know-how in Japanese cuisine.
“The Philippines remains JFC’s most important market and Yoshinoya will be a strong addition to our presence in the country. I am confident that this is the beginning of a long-term and much larger partnership,” Tan Caktiong said.
YIPI is the Philippine subsidiary of Asia Yoshinoya International SDN BHD and Yoshinoya Holdings Co. Ltd., the trademark owner of the Yoshinoya System.
Yoshinoya is Jollibee’s first Japanese food chain. It also has several foreign franchised brands such as Burger King, PHO 24 and Panda Express.
Jollibee said it aimed to be the leading market developer of foreign restaurant brands in the country, making it the partner of choice.
The company said that over the long term, it planned to have nearly 400 stores of foreign franchised brands in the Philippines.
“JFC sees high potential for broad acceptance across the country for these foreign franchised brands as it expects expansion of the upper middle class in the country in the long-term. This will create demand for a wider variety of food products including those from foreign brands,” Jollibee said.
“The goal of these foreign franchised brands is to contribute to the sustainable growth of the domestic business by successfully building the brands and growing each brand to be the leader in its market segment. These foreign franchised brands also create benefits such as economies of scale, synergies in organization and supply chain allowing them to be profitable in a short period of time,” it said.
