Jollibee Philippines gets approval for regional headquarters

Manila, Philippines - December 19, 2005

Jollibee Philippines, which owns and operates the largest fast-food chain in the country announced that its newly formed unit, Jollibee Worldwide Pte. Ltd., has secured regulatory approval to operate a regional operating headquarters in the Philippines.

Jollibee Worldwide will provide shared services to the foreign and domestic business operations of the Jollibee group, and will formally begin operations in the Philippines early next year.

Jollibee Chairman and Chief Executive Tony Tan Caktiong said the establishment of a regional operating headquarters is an important development for the group.

"The license to operate a regional operating headquarters is a recognition that our business is now truly a multinational enterprise," he said.

The Philippines regional operating headquarters license grants investment incentives to service operations for multinational companies, such as accounting, human resource, information technology and other related functions, said Jollibee in a statement.

Jollibee Philippines said it has already invested PHP250 million over the past two years in upgrading and standardizing its information technology that will serve as the platform of Jollibee Worldwide, which is expected to eventually employ some 800 people. An additional PHP110 million will be invested by the group to upgrade the facility of Jollibee Worldwide.

Tan Caktiong said the establishment of the shared services business forms part of a broader and long term corporate strategy.

The Jollibee group has operations in nine countries including the U.S., China, Indonesia, Vietnam and Hongkong. It has plans to further expand its business abroad and in the Philippines through the expansion of store networks of its current brands and through acquisitions of new businesses.

"Our first priority is to grow the business by growing same store sales, expanding our store network, entering new geographies and acquiring new businesses," he said. "We also need to increase our productivity and this will come mainly from increasing the size of our businesses while keeping the size our overheads stable."

As of November 20, Jollibee Philippines has 1,243 stores - 521 Jollibee hamburger restaurants, 321 Chowking Chinese fast-food stores, 235 Greenwich pizza/pasta restaurants, 131 Red Ribbon bakeshops, and 35 Delifrance stores. It also operates 147 stores abroad including 95 Yonghe King stores in China.

Source: Dow Jones

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