Jollibee, Philippine's McDonald's Will Soon Take Over The World

There was a lot of food chain out there who claims that their version of both chicken and spaghetti are the best. Well, you ain’t seen nothin' yet. If you’ve been in the Philippines, you know about Jollibee.

Jollibee Foods Corporation (also called JFC and popularly known simply as Jollibee), is a Filipino multinational chain of fast food restaurants headquartered in Pasig City. JFC is the owner of the popular fast food brand Jollibee, dubbed as Asia's answer to McDonald's in the fast food burger business.

Jollibee

Fast food restaurant company · jollibee.com.ph
Jollibee Foods Corporation, is a Filipino multinational chain of fast food restaurants headquartered in Pasig City. JFC is the owner of the popular fast food brand Jollibee, dubbed as Asia's answer to McDonald's in the fast food burger business. Wikipedia
Customer service: 0917 800 7000
Founder: Tony Tan
Founded: January 28, 1978, Quezon City
Headquarters: Pasig
CEO: Ernesto Tanmantiong
Revenue: 62.55 billion PHP (2011)
Subsidiaries: Chowking, Greenwich Pizza, Mang Inasal, Red Ribbon

With the success of its flagship brand, JFC acquired some of its competitors in the fast food business in the Philippines and abroad such as Chowking, Greenwich Pizza, Red Ribbon, Mang Inasal, and Burger King (Philippines). As of January 2015, JFC had a total of more than 3,000 stores worldwide, with system-wide retail sales totaling 82.1 billion pesos for the fiscal year 2011.

The burger chain is ubiquitous in the country, where there are 890 locations selling Filipino takes on American classics, like fried chicken, burgers with pineapple rings, and sweet spaghetti topped with ham and sausage.

In the last four decades, Jollibee’s unique variations on fast-food offerings have helped the fast food chain defeat much larger competition in the Philippines. Notably, despite McDonald’s opening its first location in the Philippines in 1981, Jollibee still manages to far outsell its rival. A lot of people in the Philippines claims that Jollibee tastes sweet while McDonald’s tastes a bit salty.

Founder Tony Tan Caktiong simply understands what Filipino customers want better than McDonald’s. Let’s just call it a home-team advantage.

As a small history flashback, Tan opened two ice cream parlors in Manila back in the 1970s, that would evolve into the Jollibee Foods empire that today has more than 3,000 locations worldwide. Just simply amazing.

Items like sweet spaghetti (which the company calls “uniquely Jollibee”) may not entice most Americans, but the sweet-and-salty mix is exactly with Filipino customers crave. Eventually, as it became clear that Filipino customers wanted something other than classic American flavors, even McDonald’s had to concede and add options like rice and spaghetti to the menu in the region.

Plus, Tan realizes the value of presenting Jollibee as a family-run, local chain that customers can trust — unlike the foreign chains attempting to expand in the country.

“All Filipinos love Jollibee because we feel like we are at home,” Lyn Mina, a domestic helper in Hong Kong, told Forbes Asia in 2013. “Jollibee can do what other food chains can do, franchise to other countries. It means that Filipinos can make their name [around the world].”

Of course, there are people who crave Jollibee outside of the Philippines. The chain has dedicated fans around the world, many of them Filipino immigrants. As a result, Jollibee locations have popped up in areas such as Hawaii and parts of California that have become hotspots for Filipino communities. New Jollibee locations are planned in countries such as Britain, Italy, and Canada in 2016.

However, if the company wants to actually dominate the international world of fast food, it is going to have to open restaurants that serve things other than spam sandwiches and frozen treat halo-halo.

Diversification is necessary as Tan realizes that, if Jollibee is going to reach its goal of becoming one of the five most valuable fast food operators. Jollibee Foods has purchased chains including pizza-and-pasta concept Greenwich and Chinese-style Chowking, purchased a 40% stake in American burger chain Smashburger, and has committed to opening at least 1,400 Dunkin’ Donuts locations in China in the next 20 years.

According to the Economists, Tan wants the company’s foreign business to make up half of the company’s revenue. So, everything from donuts to dumpling will be on the menu in the coming years at the company that made its name selling sweet spaghetti and fried chicken.

I am from the Philippines! These are some of the things that really make us Filipinos even prouder than winning all the beauty pageants and knocking almost all boxing contenders ;-) We’re still waiting for the first Filipino to play in the NBA though ;-)

Cheerio!