Fast food giant Jollibee Foods Corp. on Wednesday bared plans to expand its China footprint by focusing more on franchising its Yonghe King stores while also further boosting the market for its more premium Tim Ho Wan brand.
“China is one of our strategic markets along with the US and Philippines. It is all about growth. What we’re seeing right now is a decent base of 505 stores with three Chinese cuisine brands. Our growth strategy is to continue in that segment,” Jollibee’s chief finance officer Richard Shin said.
He said that quick service restaurants are a significantly important segment in China, and that Jollibee believes its three brands there have the most potential for upside mobility and gain more following.
According to him, the Yonghe King, which is the biggest of the three brands, now more or less cover all the tier-one cities with a combination of company owned stores and a sprinkle of franchised stores.
“Our strategy starting from this year is to really elevate that base through a significant store openings and that will come through a very capital-light option of franchising,” he said.
“So, with those tier-one cities, we’re now able to satellite into neighboring tier-two cities. And that’s where we’ll be opening Yonghe Kings through the franchise model.”
What this means is that the brand should soon open around 100 to 150 stores in China this year.
Also, the Jollibee group will continue to build their Michelin-starred business Tim Ho Wan, a dim sum concept from Hong Kong that features a slightly more elevated dining experience.
“We’re not looking at a large footprint expansion, but rather building off of the 18 stores that we have. And we’ll be adding five new stores this year, again, going to key geographic cities where we believe that the brand could start to really take on above QSR level opportunity,” he said of the premium approach rather than the quick service restaurant that the brand is best know for.
