Jollibee Foods Corp., one of the largest Asian food service companies, said Wednesday that its partly-owned SuperFoods Group has signed a deal with East-West Restaurant Concepts to transfer assets of PHP24, which operates 14 stores and a pho factory in Vietnam.
SuperFoods is a joint venture between Jollibee’s JSF Investments Pte. Ltd. and Vietnam Viet Thai International Joint Stock Co. East-West Restaurants in wholly-owned by VTI.
Jollibee said the transaction also terminated its franchise to operate PHO24 stores in the Philippines.
Financial details of the deal were not immediately available.
Jollibee said it will instead focus its resources in building and growing its new businesses that include Tim Ho Wan, Yoshinoya and Milksha.
Jollibee has a joint venture agreement with the Tim Ho Wan Group to open and operate Tim Ho Wan restaurants in Mainland China. It opened its first Michelin-starred Tim Ho Wan restaurant in Shanghai’s Changning District in September 2020. Tim Ho Wan is targeting to open 100 restaurants within the next few years in China, which remains one of Jollibee’s four pillar markets. It currently has 16 stores in Shanghai and 2 in Beijing.
Jollibee formed in October 2021 joint venture with Yoshinoya International Philippines—the local franchise-holder of the Japanese brand. It plans to open 50 stores in the Philippines in the long-term. Yoshinoya is a beef bowl business based in Japan and one of the largest and most recognized Japanese restaurant brands globally. It has 7 stores in the country.
In February 2022, the JFC Group, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Jollibee Worldwide Pte. Ltd. completed the acquisition of a 51 percent stake in Milkshop International Co. Ltd., which owns the popular Taiwanese bubble tea brand and 283 outlets in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, Singapore, and United Kingdom. Jollibee plans a global expansion for Milkshop.
As at end-2022, Jollibee manages 6,481 food stores worldwide of which around half are in the Philippines.
