Jollibee Is Where The Filipino's Heart Is

When it comes to fast-food restaurants in the Philippines, there's always two names that comes first, McDonald's and Jollibee. McDonald's, along with Burger King and Wendy's, was only introduced into the Philippines by American influences. McDonald's today is considered as one of the top names in the food service industry across the world. Almost every place of every country has their own McDonald's restaurant, including in the Philippines. But unlike other countries in which McDonald's is considered as their top fast-food chain, Philippines only considers McDonald's as second to Jollibee.

The reason behind this is that Jollibee is a fast-food restaurant that came from Philippine soil, a true image of Filipino ingenuity. Aside from this, Jollibee Philippine is also the only fast-food chain that provides both the American favorites such as Hamburgers and Fries along with Filipino delicacies include some of the Filipino breakfast favorites such as Topsilog, Tocilog, and Hotsilog. Other than this, Jollibee is also known to provide what every Filipino kids want, joy and fun. This is why Jollibee named some of their menus for kid's enjoyment such as ChickEnjoy and YumBurger.

Because of Jollibee's repeated success in the food service industry in the Philippines, even topping that of McDonald's, Jollibee became the largest fast-food chain in the Philippines. Aside from the Philippines, Jollibee's success has also reached other countries, especially where OFWs commonly congregate such as in the United States, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Dubai and Brunei. With over 1,655 stores worldwide and total sales of more than US$1 billion, Jollibee Philippine is now considered as one of the biggest fast-food restaurant in the world, competing with McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King.

But its success doesn't only stem from its own name. Jollibee, in the hopes of providing more service to Filipinos by serving them the best choices of food collections, have come to acquire and expand several brands of fast-food chains in the Philippines. The company acquired 80% of Greenwich Pizza in 1994, enabling it to penetrate the pizza-pasta segment. From a 50-branch operation, Greenwich has established a strong presence in the food service industry. In early 2006, Jollibee Philippine bought out the remaining shares of its partners in Greenwich Pizza Corp., equivalent to a 20% stake, for P384 million in cash. In 2000, the company acquired Chowking, allowing Jollibee to be part of the Asian quick service restaurant segment.

Today, Jollibee owns some of the most promising and popular names in the food service industry. These include: Chowking, Greenwich Pizza, Red Ribbon Bakeshop, Délifrance, and Manong Pepe's. As of end-September, 2008, JFC has 1,490 local and 228 foreign stores in its portfolio.