Jollibee income down 14.4% in 2019

MANILA, Philippines — Asian food conglomerate Jollibee Foods Corp. saw its net income decline 14.4 percent to P6.3 billion last year as its recent acquisitions and supply problems continued to leave a bitter taste on its financials.

2019 was a very tough year for JFC, said company chief executive officer Ernesto Tanmantiong.

“We are very encouraged by the continued rise in customer visits to our stores, the strong growth in our store network with sustained healthy return on invest capital, the strong momentum in the delivery business, the recovery of the Red Ribbon product supply in the Philippines and the very good indicators of recovery of the Smashburger business in the United States,” Tanmantiong said.

However, he said JFC expects to recover this year.

“We look forward to a much stronger sales and profit performance in 2020 and the years ahead even as we consolidate the financial performance of CBTL into our financial results,” Tanmantiong said.

Last year, JFC made P10.1 billion in capital investments, mostly for new stores, renovations and supply chain facilities. Revenue grew 11.4 percent to P243.8 billion.

Fourth quarter net income was flat at P2.2 billion on revenue of P52.4 billion, which was up 17.7 percent.

For the whole of 2019, the JFC Group opened 273 stores in the Philippines and 224 new stores abroad. It ended 2019 with 5,971 stores, including Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf’s 1,173 stores. Total store network increased by 32.1 percent year on year.