Jollibee Food Corporation continues to pursue its European expansion with its third restaurant in Leicester City, United Kingdom.

Known for being home to the Leicester City Football Club, a Premier League-winning football team, and one of the UK’s oldest cities, the Leicester City opening is the second Jollibee UK restaurant opening in the span of just two months.

Despite lockdown restrictions currently in place in the UK, Jollibee said the opening was still well received by the local community with customers patiently waiting to get their take-out.

Physical distancing and other strict safety protocols were enforced to ensure the well-being of the customers and the store team.

“Everywhere, our world-famous Chickenjoy has always been met with excitement and we’re happy to see that Leicester City is no exception,” said Dennis Flores, President of Jollibee Foods Corporation Europe, Middle East, Asia, and Australia.

He noted that, “What is amazing with this opening is that 40 percent of the customers were locals from Leicester when usually almost all of the customers during the first weeks are Filipinos as they are already familiar with Jollibee.”

“This is a good indication that our strategy to make Jollibee appeal to the mainstream market is working - allowing us to widen our customer base. We are very much encouraged to see the initial days’ sales outperform projections by double digits, even surpassing the recent blockbuster Liverpool opening,” Flores added. To date, Jollibee has over 1,400 stores globally. The company earlier shared its plans to open 50 stores in Europe within the next five years.