[FoodBud] Jollibee (Jollibee) is a catering brand familiar to every Filipino . Its fried chicken fast food is called "National Fried Chicken". This fast food restaurant founded by Chinese has grown into Philippines 's leading catering empire.
Currently, Jollibee is based on the Philippine market and has developed into a catering chain giant with more than 6,000 stores around the world. Its brand matrix includes Jollibee (Western fast food), Chowking (Chinese fast food), Greenwich (pizza and pasta), Yonghe King Yonghe King, etc.
As of March 22, Jollibee has 6,246 stores worldwide. In 2021, the system-wide sales of
reached 25.86 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20%; the revenue was 18.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.8%; the net profit attributable to listed companies was 700 million yuan, corresponding to In 2020, it is in a state of loss.
In the first quarter of 2022, system-wide sales were 7.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 25.5%; revenue was 5.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 23.6%; net profit attributable to listed companies was 280 million yuan RMB, a year-on-year increase of 1412.3%.
Note: Other brands acquired and represented by Jollibee, which do not have stores listed in the latest quarterly financial report, are not included.
Jollibee's brand matrix:
, Jollibee Jollibee - Western fast food
The flagship brand of Jollibee Group, the largest fast food chain store in the Philippines, National Fried Chicken is one of its best-selling products. A Filipino may not have eaten McDonald's , but he must have eaten Jollibee.
As of March 22, the brand Jollibee has 1,182 stores in Indonesia , including 431 self-operated stores and 751 franchise stores. In the North American market, there are 56 Jollibee stores in the United States and 23 stores in Canada.
other markets, such as Vietnam , Hong Kong, China, Brunei , Singapore, Macau, China, Malaysia have 152, 18, 18, 18 (12 self-operated and 8 franchise stores), 3 and 2 respectively. Home store.
In the Middle East market, there are 51 companies; there are 14 companies in the European market, including 2, 11 and 1 companies in Italy, the United Kingdom and Spain respectively. There is also a Guam in the United States.
, Chaoqun Chowking - Chinese fast food
Chaoqun Chowking is the largest Chinese fast food chain brand in the Philippines. It was founded in 1985 by Robert Kuan, a Chinese Filipino. He was one of the people who introduced McDonald's to China. —Robert Kuan. The Chinese-style name "Chaoqun" means that we hope that this fast food restaurant will stand out from the crowd and have outstanding business.
Chaoqun Chowking specializes in authentic Chinese food such as noodles, dim sum, steamed buns, wontons, rice and stir-fry set meals, etc. It was acquired by Jollibee in 2000.
As of March 22, Chaoqun Chowking has 559 stores in the Philippines, of which 187 are self-operated stores and 372 franchise stores. In addition, there are 16 and 33 stores in North America and the Middle East.
, Greenwich Greenwich - Pizza & Pasta
Greenwich Pizza is mainly positioned as Western food, focusing on pizza, pasta and other products. In 1994, Jollibee acquired 80% of Greenwich Pizza, and the remaining 20% was acquired in 2006 for 46.7 million yuan.
As of March 22, Greenwich Pizza had 271 stores in the Philippines, including 145 self-operated stores and 126 franchised stores.
4, Red Ribbon - Baking and cake chain
Red Ribbon has become one of the fastest growing and largest baking chain brands in the Philippines. In 2005, it was acquired by Jollibee.
As of March 22, Red Ribbon has 518 stores in the Philippines, of which 180 are self-operated stores and 338 are franchise stores. In addition, there are 36 stores in the North American market.
5, Mang Inasal - BBQ fried chicken chain
Mang Inasal was founded by founder Sia in 2003 and opened its first store; by 2009, only six years after the first branch opened, Mang Inasal's store size It reached 100, which is when it attracted Jollibee’s attention.
In 2010, Jollibee acquired a 70% stake in Mang Inasal for 365 million yuan. In 2016, Jollibee completed the acquisition of the remaining 30% equity.
As of March 22, Mang Inasal has 577 stores in the Philippine market, including 15 self-operated stores and 562 franchise stores.
6, SuperFoods - a catering group in the Vietnamese market
SuperFoods mainly has two brands - Vietnamese pho chain brand Pho24 and coffee chain brand Highlands Coffee.
In 2011, Jollibee acquired 50% of Super Foods for US$25 million.
As of March 22, the coffee chain brand Highlands Coffee has 500 stores, of which 421 are directly operated stores and 79 are franchise stores. The Vietnamese pho chain brand Pho24 has 38 stores, 22 directly operated stores and 16 franchised stores. There are also 4 Pho24 stores in the Philippines.
According to the latest financial report data, SuperFoods’ revenue in the first quarter of 2022 was 190 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.5%.
7, Yonghe King - Chinese fast food
Yonghe King is a well-known Chinese fast food chain brand originating from Taiwan, China. In 2004, Jollibee acquired 85% of Yonghe King's equity for US$22.5 million, and the subsequent 15% equity was acquired for US$6 million, totaling US$28.5 million (approximately 190 million yuan).
As of March 22, Yonghe King has 400 stores, 293 of which are directly operated stores, and 107 franchise stores.
8, Hongzhuangyuan - porridge chain brand
Hongzhuangyuan Porridge Store was founded in 1993 and is a famous porridge chain brand in Beijing. In 2008, Jollibee acquired 100% of Hongzhuangyuan’s shares for US$55.5 million (approximately 370 million yuan).
As of March 22, Hongzhuangyuan has 53 stores, 50 directly operated stores and 3 franchise stores.
9, Tim Ho Wan - Chinese dim sum chain
Chef Mai Guipei, one of the founders of Tim Ho Wan, was the chef of the three-star Michelin restaurant and the Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong Lung King Heen. He and his partner chef Liang Huiqiang The chef co-founded this dim sum shop. In 2009, two chefs opened the first Tim Ho Wan premium dim sum restaurant in Mong Kok , Hong Kong. At that time, the restaurant had only 20 seats. A year later, they received one Michelin star.
Since 2018, Jollibee has been buying shares in Titan, the parent company of Tim Ho Wan.
In 2018, Jollibee purchased 45% of Titan’s shares for S$45 million and obtained the Asia-Pacific franchise rights of Tim Ho Wan. In 2019, Jollibee continued to increase its stake in Titan to 60%, and its investment in Titan increased to S$120 million. In this year, Titan acquired the brand and trademark of Tim Ho Wan.
In 2020, it will continue to purchase 25% of Titan's shares for a price of SGD 36.3 million. In 2021, Jollibee also acquired the remaining 15% of the shares.
In the last round of transactions in 2021, Tim Ho Wan’s valuation has reached 2.3 billion yuan.
As of March 22, Tim Ho Wan has 8 stores in the Chinese market.
9, Smashburger - a burger-based fast food chain
Smashburger is a chain brand established in the United States in 2007. In 2015, Jollibee spent US$100 million to buy 40% of the company's equity, with a valuation of 3.35 billion; after multiple rounds of operations, Jollibee acquired all the equity of the company in 2018.
As of March 22, Smashburger had 248 stores, 131 directly operated stores and 117 franchised stores.
0, Coffee Bean - coffee and tea chain brand
Coffee Bean is a specialty tea and coffee chain brand established in Southern California in 1963. Over the past 50 years, its store scale has covered 27 countries and has more than 1,000 stores.
In 2019, Jollibee acquired 80% of Coffee Bean’s equity for US$350 million (approximately 2.3 billion yuan), and the other 20% of the equity is held by Viet Thai, Jollibee’s partner in Vietnam (Viet Thai mainly holds shares in the SuperFoods project). After
acquired Coffee Bean, there will be certain synergies with Highlands Coffee in Vietnam, and Jollibee also intends to list Coffee Bean separately.
As of March 22, Coffee Bean has 1,062 stores worldwide, including 295 directly operated stores and 767 franchised stores.
1, Milksha - the tea drink chain brand
Milksha's first store was opened in 2004. After more than ten years of development, its global stores have expanded to Singapore (12), Australia (3 companies) and North America and Canada (2 companies).
In November 2021, Jollibee acquired 51% of Milksha's shares for US$12.8 million (approximately 85.77 million yuan).
As of March 22, Milksha had 264 stores, including 18 directly operated stores and 246 franchised stores.
2, the agent brand
Jollibee takes the agency of restaurant chain brands in the North American market, mainly in the Philippines and the Chinese market. For example, it takes the agency rights of Burger King , Panda Express and Yoshinoya Yoshinoya in the Philippines.
In terms of agency rights, Jollibee previously took control of Burger King's agency in the Philippines, and has established joint ventures with agency brands such as Panda Express, Yoshinoya and Dunkin' Donuts.
As of March 22, Jollibee operates 105 Burger King stores in the Philippines, Panda Express has 6 stores, and Yoshinoya has 3 stores.
In the Chinese market, Jollibee has the agency rights for Dunkin' Donuts; in 2015 At that time, it won the exclusive rights to operate Dunkin' Donuts in Hong Kong, Macau, Fujian, Hunan, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Hainan, Guangxi, Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Chongqing, Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan, Heilongjiang and Jilin.
The slogan that year was to open 1,400 Dunkin' Donuts stores within 20 years. But as of March 22, Jollibee had only 7 Dunkin' Donuts operating in the Chinese market.
1 The Empire State Building started from an ice cream shop and beat McDonald's in the Philippines.
Jollibee was founded by Chen Juezhong in 1975. It is the largest listed catering chain group in the Philippines and is a household name in the Philippines.
Born in 1953, Chen Juezhong is the second generation of Filipino-Chinese immigrants. His father, Chen Lanyin, was originally from Gangfu Community, Shenhu Town, Jinjiang City, Fujian Province. He went to the Philippines to make a living when he was 13 years old. Chen Lanyin first worked as a busboy in a restaurant, and later worked as a chef in a Chinese restaurant in Manila. In the 1960s, Mr. Chen started his own business and opened a Chinese restaurant in the southern Philippines.
A grassroots entrepreneur, Chen Lanyin's Chinese restaurant sometimes leaks, but his good craftsmanship and kindness have attracted many customers from the surrounding area to dine. Among seven brothers and sisters, Chen Juezhong ranks third. When they were children, Chen Juezhong and his younger brother Chen Yunzhong had to help out at the restaurant every time after school. His father, Chen Lanyin, said to his brothers and sisters: "If you are a tailor, the clothes must look good; if you are a caterer, the taste must be good." graduate.At the age of 22, one day he and his colleagues went to visit an ice cream factory in Quezon City. With Jinjiang people's business genes, he discovered an opportunity contained in a poster, and the ice cream factory could provide franchise rights. In May of that year, he took his family's savings and used 350,000 pesos to obtain a franchise and opened two ice cream shops - Cubao Ice Cream House and Quiapo Ice Cream House.
A customer reported to Chen Juezhong that the variety of ice cream sold was too monotonous. Could he sell more items? "Unintentionally, a willow will make a shadow." Chen Juezhong later added hot meals and sandwiches. Unexpectedly, it became more popular than selling ice cream.
By 1978, Chen Juezhong had opened six ice cream houses. He was determined to create his own brand. After discussing with his family, he terminated the franchise contract with the ice cream factory and changed all the stores into fast food restaurants. This is the prototype of Jollibee, the largest restaurant in the Philippines.
Jollibee, which started making fried chicken and burgers, met the Western fast food giant McDonald's. In 1981, when the McDonald's chain opened in Manila, Philippines, almost everyone believed that the international fast-food giant would soon fill the streets with its golden arches logo, and the lives of Jollibee's 11 stores at the time were at risk. .
McDonald's opened 6 stores in two years and invested a lot of money in advertising. The sales of each store quickly exceeded Jollibee. In 1983, McDonald's captured 27% of the fast food market, while Jollibee's market share was 32%.
The political landscape that began to change in August 1983 plunged the Philippines into an economic crisis. Foreign companies, including McDonald's, have begun slowing investment in the Philippines, while Jollibee continues to expand and develop new products that suit local consumer tastes.
By 1986, when foreign companies such as McDonald's re-increased investment and operations in the Philippines, it was obvious that Jollibee had firmly occupied a dominant position in the market. Since then, this market structure has not changed.
Mr. Chen Juezhong, founder of Jollibee, said that providing food that suits Filipino tastes is one of the reasons for its success. Jollibee provides food that is more suitable for locals. The fried chicken is crispy and not as spicy as McDonald's; the noodles are a bit sweet because Filipinos tend to have sweeter tastes, while McDonald's noodles have more tomato sauce and are more suitable for American tastes; Jollibee Feng also sells a variety of mango products, Filipino rice noodles, honey steak rice and other Chinese food, which are not available at McDonald's.
"Maybe we are very young, but we feel that we can do anything. We are not afraid." Chen Juezhong said when he recalled that year. It is this courage and courage that led Jollibee to face-to-face competition with McDonald's. "The brave will win when they meet on a narrow road." Taking advantage of the opportunity of changes in the political situation, Jollibee successfully repelled McDonald's attack and has maintained its leading position in the market.
Jollibee also provides good training and treatment for its employees because "in our competitive industry, the mental state of employees can have a great impact on the company. Happy employees can bring happiness to our guests."
Many children in the Philippines always go to Jollibee because they like this cute little bee. The clown in front of McDonald's scares some children, so Jollibee is more popular than McDonald's in the Philippines.
Chen Juezhong said, "Bees fly around, making life sweet, and they are very happy despite being busy." The reason why Jollibee was chosen as the store name and logo was because of the happy character of the Filipinos it symbolizes.
2 Based in the Philippines, it embarked on the road of overseas expansion
In 1985, Jollibee’s dominant position in the Philippines was basically established. Overseas business people, including friends of the Chen family, began to try to persuade Chen Juezhong to authorize them to operate in other countries. Franchise.
In 1985, Jollibee Company expanded overseas for the first time in Singapore. The investors were Jollibee Company, local managers and five Filipino Chinese.However, soon after the opening, the relationship between Jollibee and local managers deteriorated. The local managers did not accept the inspection of Jollibee's standard implementation status, while Jollibee insisted on operational standardization, so conflicts arose. In 1986, both parties revoked the franchise contract and closed the store.
In 1986, Jollibee formed a joint venture with Chen Jue-chung’s friends in Taiwan and established a company in Taiwan, with each party holding 50% of the shares. It was fully booked when it first opened, but revenue dropped due to its poor location. In addition, the personnel of the company's executive and supervision had conflicts with local partners. The two parties terminated the joint venture in 1988, and Jollibee withdrew from the Taiwan market.
In August 1987, Jollibee established a joint venture in Brunei, and its partner was Sheomart, one of the largest department stores in the Philippines. By the end of 1993, 4 stores had been successfully opened.
first accumulated international experience in markets such as Brunei and Vietnam where the fast food industry was underdeveloped, and then gradually promoted the brand to Guam and Hong Kong. Jollibee attaches great importance to developing fast food that suits the tastes of local consumers. In Indonesia, Jollibee launched a fast food mix of coconut milk and rice; in Hong Kong, it launched mushroom chicken rice. Both fast food options are very popular with customers.
Chen Juezhong summed up the first round of overseas expansion this way: "In Singapore and Taiwan, the local partners ran the business and did not like our operational control; while in Brunei, the local investors were just silent partners. We sent management from the Philippines People run the business, and they support us." This shows that local partner selection, and the company's relationship management with local partners, are key factors in the success of Jollibee's overseas expansion.
Chen Juezhong said that McDonald's can succeed in every place because they are good at choosing partners and can select 100 candidates and choose the best one. At that time, Jollibee did not have the brand potential to make such a choice. Another key factor is the choice of location. If you are not a well-known brand and want to enter a new country or city, it is difficult to get close to the best location.
In 1993, Jollibee became a listed company in the Philippines, but Chen Juezhong and his family members still controlled the company and occupied major management positions (especially in some important operating departments). Many franchisees are also members or friends of the Chen family. At the same time, Jollibee hired professionals for its marketing and finance departments. For example, the newly formed international business department hired Tony Kitchener, a manager who had worked at Pizza Hut for 14 years, as general manager in January 1994.
At the planning meeting in the fall of 1994, Tony Kitchener proposed Jollibee’s international business strategy: the two major strategic themes are “targeting immigrants” (targeting Filipino immigrants scattered in various countries, and later discovering the market Limited), "setting up the flag" (entering countries and places where competitors have not yet entered, such as in Brunei, Jollibee is a pioneer in the fast food industry, so it can set the pace and standards); the specific operation method is to use Jollibee to The success in the Philippines and the Chen family's network of relationships led them to choose which markets to enter by investigating the franchising situation in different countries.
Differences and arguments between the international business department and the domestic business department have always existed, and later gradually evolved into conflicts. Among the biggest controversies are changes to menu items and company logos. By November 1996, due to the financial problems caused by rapid expansion, Chen Juezhong decided to no longer support Kitchener's rapid expansion strategy: "We would rather slow down and ensure that every store can be profitable, so as to bring in funds. Generate friendly and long-term cooperative relationships.”
After 1997, Jollibee’s transnational operations entered a stage of adjustment, which was mainly reflected in two aspects: First, by 2001, it focused on improving the management of existing overseas chain stores. , making each store profitable and opening fewer new stores; second, starting from 2002, it has adopted cross-border mergers and acquisitions to expand overseas.
In 2002, Jollibee acquired a Japanese fast food chain in California, USA, and expanded overseas markets through mergers and acquisitions for the first time; in February 2004, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Jollibee International Co., Ltd., it invested US$22.5 million in Baring Investment in China. and other venture investors obtained 85% of the shares of Yonghe King Group.
In the Chinese market, Jollibee also invested in Sanpin Wang and subsequently sold it. In recent years, Jollibee has acquired the coffee chain brand Coffee Bean and the tea chain brand Milksha, plus the previously acquired Highlands Coffee. It can be said that in addition to the fast food business, these are another rapidly growing and very large global market that we are focusing on.
3 What can we learn from Jollibee’s global expansion?
From two ice cream shops in 1975 to over 6,000 stores around the world, Jollibee’s growth history is of high learning value for restaurant chain brands. . In the early days, Jollibee localized Western-style fast food based on local tastes, defeating McDonald's and gradually becoming the leader in local catering. After going public, Jollibee began to make rapid progress again, expanding overseas markets through self-operation and acquisitions, and achieved outstanding results.
. Focus on the catering field and persevere
In 2004, Jollibee founder Chen Juezhong sent his son Chen Xingyuan to China to develop business. At that time, Chen Xingyuan asked his father how long he would need to stay in China. Chen Juezhong's answer was, "You must stay here for the third generation." "In other words, the founder hopes that his son can pass on this business in the Chinese market and take root here."
In the same year, Chen Juezhong won the "World Entrepreneur of the Year Award", said in an interview: "They may think that there are relatively few companies like me that have been investing in the fast food industry for decades and focus on one thing."
Jollibee was founded in 1975. So far, he has been focusing on the catering industry and has not engaged in any investment or operation outside the catering industry. Weak players have limited resources. If they want to achieve better market position and performance, they must use resources intensively, especially when facing strong competitors.
. Defend the revolutionary base
As Chen Juezhong said: "The fast food industry is like building a building. You must first build a good foundation and then build it layer by layer. If the foundation is not good, it will be very troublesome."
This "foundation", from a strategic perspective From a management perspective, it is the "base area"; from a management perspective, it is basic management, such as the operational standardization of the fast food industry.
Weak and small enterprises have a "base area", which is an important condition for their survival and development. Relying on the "base" can maintain the company's continued survival on the one hand, and expand new development space on the other. More importantly, when new business or geographical market expansion is unfavorable, the company can return to its "base" to "recuperate" in order to strike again.
. "Tasty" is the foundation, and localized taste is the secret to winning.
Zhang Shuhua, President of Jollibee China, said in an interview, "The founding family of Jollibee is very insistent on delicious food. The father of our founder Chen Juezhong is a A chef who worked in the Philippines from China in his early years, he believed that Chinese delicacies can be reflected in delicacies around the world. Therefore, the founding family of Jollibee insists on putting delicious food first. "This is also the original intention of Jollibee's catering.
Chen Juezhong said: "My father often said that if you are a tailor, the clothes must be beautiful; if you are a caterer, the taste must be good." What he learned from his father is "it must be delicious", not only Chen Juezhong's fast food business The core concept has become the highest principle of Jollibee new product development .
Jollibee has adhered to the concept of "delicious food" since its establishment. Chen's burgers are specially designed for the tastes of Filipino locals, so when McDonald's entered the Philippine market, American tastes did not dominate.After successfully defeating McDonald's, Chen Juezhong and Jollibee even more adhered to the new product development strategy of "taste localization".
One month after the launch of each new product, Jollibee will conduct market research and evaluation. Once you find that the response is not as enthusiastic as expected, immediately change products to capture the market. In the Philippines, Jollibee launches a new product every one and a half months, while McDonald's only launches one every six months. New product research and development has become another key factor for Jollibee's success.
In overseas markets, Jollibee continues its new product strategy of “taste localization”. In each new market, Jollibee continuously adjusts the category structure and menu through consumer surveys and new product "tasting", and continues to do so. This is an important factor in Jollibee's success in occupying overseas markets.
Chen Juezhong not only advocates the development of new products with "localized taste", but also personally travels around the world to find "delicious" food. In Chen Juezhong's eyes, Taiwan's dazzling array of snacks are primitive and precious treasures. If you choose properly and standardize operations, you will definitely create an influential brand.
Chen Juezhong believes that differences in regional food culture and eating habits are not the key reason why China’s fast food industry cannot expand. "Chain stores can focus on different products according to the eating habits of different regions. The most important thing is to implement and solve problems in a standardized manner. The challenge now is how to do it well."
4. Repeated failures and battles, good at learning
Due to various reasons such as environmental differences, ability requirements, market characteristics, etc., success in the local market does not guarantee the same success in overseas markets, especially for weak enterprises with limited resources. When they operate overseas in the early stages, they often do not go smoothly or even fail, which requires entrepreneurs to have a spirit of "successful failure and repeated battles."
Although Jollibee’s “unfavorable start” in overseas operations affected Chen Juezhong’s confidence in overseas operations, he did not give up, but constantly summed up the lessons of failure. On the one hand, I "paid my tuition", and on the other hand, I gained valuable experience and knowledge, which laid the foundation for successful overseas operations in the future.
Chen Juezhong not only has the ability to learn and summarize from corporate practice, but is also good at learning valuable things from his parents and world-class companies and applying them to corporate practice.
Chen Juezhong learned the standardized process system of operations from world-class companies, especially fast food companies. In 1978, while opening a hamburger restaurant, Chen Juezhong often went to the United States for inspections to see how American fast food chains operate. He visited two or three stores of each brand and looked at them from the customer's perspective. He mainly learned the standardization of operations and market operations. The standardized management of operations learned from world-class catering companies has become one of the key factors for Jollibee’s success.
