Filipino food brands continue to grow and go global, boosted by the growing Filipino communities around the globe.
This is revealed by food industry player Binalot Fiesta Foods president Rommel Juan.
Binalot has recently opened its first overseas store in Dubai. There are 700,000 Filipinos living in the United Arab Emirates and 450,000 of them are in Dubai.
Filipinos constitute 21.3 percent of the population in Dubai, so a good Filipino food brand is needed in the market, says Juan.
Binalot has granted a franchise to a local company in Dubai to ensure that it can serve the local market the best way possible.
They plan to open two more stores in Dubai and eventually open more stores across the Gulf.
Binalot is joined by local food giants Jollibee Food Corp. and the Max’s group which also bared plans for their international expansion.
Jollibee brands now have more than 3,000 outlets, including 630 abroad. In January 2015, the company announced a joint venture to open 1,400 Dunkin Donut outlets in China. The Filipino food giant also bought a 40-percent stake in Smashburger, an American fast casual burger joint.
Max’s group, the largest fast casual dining company in the Philippines, announced that it would enter the Chinese market with its Yellow Cab Pizza brand/ The group signed a development agreement with JuYangYiTong of China’s privately owned Zhongfa Group to open at least 15 upscale pizza parlors in Hebei near Beijing and Tianjin.
The venture aims to get a slice of the $2-billion pizza market in China.
Max’s group owns 550 outlets across all its brands and aims to open 200 overseas branches by 2020. They already have 34 outlets in North America.
Binalot hopes to open 20 more outlets in the Middle East in the next five years and announced that it is looking for foreign partners who wish to promote Filipino food and culture in their own country.
“We believe that Binalot can succeed wherever there are Filipino communities looking for fresh and clean Filipino food,” says Juan.
Binalot now has 34 branches around the Philippines and is known for Pinoy favorite meals all wrapped in banana leaves.