Jollibee Group sees sales, income exceeding targets

Jollibee Foods Corporation expects to exceed sales and operating income targets it set for 2023 after its Philippine and overseas numbers hit record levels in the second quarter on the back of a recovery in consumer spending and its continued expansion.

In a media briefing, Jollibee Chief Financial Officer Richard Shin noted that, for the first half and second quarter, “system wide sales and same store sales are outside of the higher end of the guidance. So, we're beating the guidance.” 

“Now operating income is ahead of guidance as well. So, for the rest of the year, we believe that will not only deliver to guidance, but likely exceed it,” he added.

Shin said the Jollibee Group has set a guidance for a 15 percent to 20 percent growth in systemwide sales this year while same store sales growth is aimed at seven percent to 10 percent. Operating income target growth range is at 20 percent to 25 percent.

However, during the first half of 2023, systemwide sales was already up by 23.3 percent while same store sales growth has hit 15.1 percent. Operating income jumped 50.7 percent during the period.

During the second quarter of this year, Shin said the double digit growth for the Jollibee Group in the Philippine market was unexpected because they already hit a record in the same period of 2022.

“So we were expecting somewhere around mid-singles. But, as it turns out, in particular, with all the macro headwinds and the challenges that we have, with inflation, and so forth, are consumers are calling us that ‘great value, great tasting, innovative,’” he said. 

Thus, Shin said that, “to us, our segment is actually the right place to be so the optimism really comes from seeing strong month after month performance in our domestic business, and also seeing some of our laggards of last year, like the Smashburger, turning around.”

“And of course, Europe has always been steady while Jollibee Vietnam is doing is doing great. So, coffee, food, we're seeing different trends in different places. But I think it's really coming from the fact that our bigger engines have been performing well, based on fundamentals, we're not price discounting, we're not taking extreme pricing either. So we're just continuing to do what we do and it seems to be gaining momentum,” he added.

He noted that, during the first half of 2023, attributable net income was actually lower than in the same period of 2022 but this is due to a one-time land sale gain of P2.9 billion in the first semester last year.

“So, if you extract that out and look at a normalized business… operating income grew over 50 percent. That's income generated from our stores. So the optimism really comes in from the fact that we are growing the topline on a steady basis,” Shin said.