Jollibee Foods Corporation reported an attributable net loss of P13.54 billion in the first nine months of 2020, a 424.4 percent drop from the attributable net income of P4.18 billion in the same period last year due to the impact of the pandemic.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the firm said system wide sales declined 26.1 percent to P126.42 billion from P171.07 billion in the first nine months of 2019.

Revenues dropped 27 percent to P92.73 billion while costs declined by a lower 20.4 percent and expenses by 13.9 percent. This resulted in an operating loss of P9.95 billion in the first nine months of 2020 from an operating income of P4.94 billion in the same period last year.

Operating income was also weighed down by the firm’s business transformation cost.

System wide sales decreased by 29.2percent to P40.6 billion in the third quarter of 2020 while revenues decreased by 30.6 percent to P30.0 billion versus a year ago primarily as a result of lost sales related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Global same store sales for the third quarter versus year ago dropped 35.3 percent. These rates of decline represented marked improvement over those in the second quarter with -48.4 percent in system wide sales, –46.6 percent in revenues and -41.0 percent in same store sales growth.

“Our business is recovering from the pandemic in different parts of the world, some faster than others. This is made possible by the resilience and hard work of our people and business partners, the strength of our brands and in cooperation with the communities and government agencies where we do business,” said JFC Chief Executive Ernesto Tanmantiong.

He added that, “We are now focusing our effort in rebuilding the business in a changed environment. While the negative impact of the crisis is still affecting us, as we reopen stores, we are introducing new products, resuming strong marketing campaigns, strengthening our systems and infrastructure particularly for digital connections with our customers and for off- premise consumption of our products and opening of new stores mostly in our international business.”

As at September 30, 2020, 93 percent of the group’s outlets including those in the Philippines were already operating. However, the speed of recovery varied in different regions in the world.

Generally, businesses in developed countries were recovering faster than those in emerging markets. Same store sales also registered lower rates of decline than in the second quarter.

A total of 339 stores were permanently closed in the first nine months of the year due to challenging business conditions: 118 in the Philippines and 221 abroad.

However, 180 new stores were also opened, mostly in the early part of the year following expansion plans started in 2020: 48 in the Philippines and 132 abroad.

The attributable net loss for the third quarter of 2020 amounted to P1.6 billion, representing a significant improvement versus the net loss reported in the second quarter of P10.2 billion which included a significant provision for business transformation expense of P7.0 billion.

Excluding this provision, the second quarter loss would have been P3.2 billion. The Company generated positive EBITDA of P1.4 billion in the third quarter of 2020.