Jollibee Foods Corporation (JFC), one of the largest Asian food service companies, expects to match its pre-pandemic (2018) operating income this year as it reported a 168 percent surge in attributable net income to P7.24 billion in the first nine months of the year.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the firm said systemwide sales rose 40.9 percent to P210.88 billion in the first nine months of the year from P149.69 billion in the same period of 2021.

Systemwide sales pertain to all sales to consumers both from company owned and franchised stores.

Revenues in the first nine months of 2022 grew 38.5 percent to P150.36 billion from P108.57 billion in the comparative period last year.

Systemwide sales grew 51.3 percent to a record high of P77.8 billion in the third quarter of 2022 from P51.39 billion in the same period last year. Revenues grew 49 percent to a historical high of P55.4 billion while operating income grew faster at 219.6 percent to a record P3.0 billion.

System wide sales of the Philippine business grew by 54.2 percent in the third quarter, with all brands registering double- to triple-digit growth compared to the third quarter of 2021.

The international business grew by 47.5 percent with SuperFoods growing by 659.6 percent, EMEAA Philippine brands up 54.6 percent, the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf® (CBTL) higher by 40.9percent, North America improved 32.5 percent, and China rose 14.2 percent.

Global same store sales grew by 30.9 percent while restaurant expansion and the acquisition of Milksha contributed 13.8 percent. Changes in currency exchange rates added 6.6 percent to the sales growth.

The Philippine business’ same store sales for the third quarter grew by 48.5 percent, sustaining the strong growth in the second quarter of 2022, driven largely by an increase in volume of customer visits compared to a year ago.

Same store sales of the international business grew by 8.5 percent, led by SuperFoods which grew by 177.1 percent, CBTL by 16.0 percent, EMEAA by 7.9 percent, and North America by 6.0 percent. The China business' same store sales declined by 4.6 percent due to a resurgence of COVID in key cities.

“The JFC Group achieved another record quarter with system wide sales reaching Php77.8 billion, up 51.3 percent versus same quarter last year,” said JFC CEO Ernesto Tanmantiong.

He added that, “All regions registered double-digit sales growth driven by strong same store sales and store network growth. Our beverage business composed of CBTL, Highlands Coffee and Milksha, which currently accounts for 30 percent of the JFC Group’s consolidated store network and 15 percent of consolidated system wide sales, generated a 90.6 percent year-on-year growth in system wide sales in the third quarter.”

“We continue to see a strengthening of our sales globally and are confident that we can deliver according to our full-year outlook,” Tanmantiong said.

The JFC group generated an operating income for the third quarter of P3.0 billion, close to the P3.1 billion generated in the second quarter and three times higher than the operating income for the same period in 2021.

“JFC reported a solid performance in the third quarter of 2022 driven by record system wide sales and revenues and continued improvement in margins despite macro-economic pressures. Consolidated operating income grew by 219.6 percent to P3.0 billion, from a revenue growth of 49.0 percent,” said JFC Chief Financial Officer Richard Shin.