Jollibee Foods Corp. said Monday it plans to make one or two major acquisitions to become one of the five largest quick service restaurant operators in the world.
Jollibee chairman Tony Tan Caktiong said in an interview at the sidelines of a special stockholders’ meeting the acquisitions could be similar or bigger in size than the recent $99-million purchase of US-based burger chain Smashburger.
Jollibee is currently the ninth biggest quick service restaurant operator in the world, a list that is led by McDonalds Corp., Starbucks and Yum Brands, which operates the licensed brands Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut.
Tan Caktiong said aside from acquiring bigger brands, the company was also looking at buying start-up restaurant brands. “A start-up can be the winning brand in the future,” he said.
Jollibee chief finance officer Ysmael Baysa said the company would also need to raise its net income and system-wide sales growth to become among the top five food chains worldwide.
Jollibee registered a compounded annual growth rate of 16 percent in terms of net income and 15 percent in terms of system-wide sales, over the 2004-2014 period.
“If we want to be number 5, we have to make more acquisitions, and we also need to increase our growth rate,” Baysa said.
Baysa said there was a good chance for Jollibee to improve its current ranking and become top 7 fast-food chain worldwide by 2020.
Jollibee earlier said it would spend P10.4 billion in capital expenditures for 2016 primarily to roll out more stores both here and abroad.
The company said of the P10.4-billion programmed spending for 2016, at least P7.5 billion would be used for new store investments and existing store renovations and the rest would be for the commissary expansion.
Jollibee is expanding its global footprint by bringing its flagship brand Jollibee in five new markets next year, including the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, Malaysia and Oman.
It also plans to open Jollibee stores in new new markets in 2017, including Australia and Japan.
Share price of Jollibee rose 1 percent to close at P202 on Monday.