By Leslie D. Venzon
MANILA, April 3 (PNA) — Homegrown fast food giant Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC) will open its first Jollibee store in Italy as it expands its global footprint.
JFC told the local bourse its wholly owned subsidiary Golden Plate Pte. Ltd. (GPPL) and Blackbird Holdings Pte. Ltd. (Blackbird) will form a Singapore joint venture (JV) company, of which 75 percent is owned by the former and 25 percent by the Blackbird.
The JV will incorporate a wholly-owned Italian subsidiary to own and operate the first Jollibee store in Italy.
“The JV will facilitate Jollibee’s entry in Italy and is an excellent opportunity to introduce the Jollibee brand to the European market,” said JFC.
GPPL and Blackbird have committed to invest up to EUR 1 million (around over PHP53 million) to the JV, of which up to EUR750,000 will be contributed by GPPL in proportion to its ownership in the business.
GPPL shall have full management control of the JV and the operations of the first store.
Blackbird is a Singapore company incorporated in 2014 and currently holds various investments both in Singapore and in the Philippines in the food and beverage, human resource, agriculture and biotechnology sectors.
JFC operates the largest food service network in the Philippines. As of February 28, 2017, it was operating 2,670 restaurant outlets in the country: Jollibee brand 989, Chowking 489, Greenwich 251, Red Ribbon 396, Mang Inasal 469 and Burger King 76.
Abroad, it was operating 620 stores in China, United States, Vietnam, Brunei, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Singapore, Hong Kong, Bahrain, Canada, Oman and Saudi Arabia.
The JFC Group has a total of 3,290 stores worldwide.
JFC also has a 50-percent interest in joint ventures for the following stores: Highlands Coffee (Vietnam, Philippines) 177, Pho 24 (Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Korea and Australia) 33, others 8; a 48-percent interest in joint venture for 12 Hotpot (China) 16 and a 40-percent interest in Smashburger with 372 outlets, mostly in the US.
These joint ventures have a total of 606 stores worldwide, which are not included in JFC’s consolidated store count.
