Jollibee Fords Corp. looks to boost its presence in the US food market with the inclusion of Mexican cuisine to its fare of traditional burgers.
According to Richard Chong Woo Shin chief financial officer at JFC, on in 10 restaurant dollar is spent on Mexican food and the first and third most popular beers enjoyed in America are Mexican brands.
“So your average American really craves good quality Mexican cuisine,” the Jollibee official said.
According to him, as Jollibee expands to other markets overseas, its focus will remain in markets in the Philippines, China and the U.S.
In the fried chicken category, this will be delivered by the flagship brand Jollibee, burgers by Smashburger, coffee and tea category by Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf Co. and Chinese cuisines through Tim Ho Wan and Yonghe King.
The company continues to pour capital into the fast casual restaurant Tortazo that has lost money the past four years. Jollibee has a 52.6 percent interest in the enterprise.
Shin said the JFC “wants to understand the category better because in the future there could be an opportunity there.”
Tortazo, a joint-venture between Jollibee and US chef Rick Bayless, posted a loss of P168.68 million last year, up from P164.87 million from prior year.
Since its incorporation in 2018 under Tortazo, LLC where Jollibee had an initial 47 percent stake, Tortazo reported gains in the first two years of operation of P24.9 million in 2019 and P34.72 million in 2018.
In 2020, the start of the pandemic, Tortazo posted a P34.7 million loss, which expanded to P135.02 million the following year.
Since initially sinking USD12.6 million in Tortazo, Jollibee has infused an additional USD2.2 million in July 2020 and USD3.5 million in July last year that raised its stake to 52.6 percent.
Tortazo owns and operates two stores in the US and three licensed Tortas Frontera stores.
It offers tortas (griddle-baked sandwiches), molletes (warm, open-faced sandwiches), soups, salads, side dishes, a guacamole bar and beverages.
It also serves a full breakfast menu that includes tortas, cazuelas (stew-like dishes cooked in a traditional pot of the same name) and a yoghurt bar.
