Philippine's Jollibee Q3 Profit Up 5.2 Percent

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine fast-food giant Jollibee Foods Corp. said Wednesday its net profit for the third quarter rose 5.2 percent from a year ago as booming business in China made up for weak domestic sales.

The country's largest food services company said income grew to 539 million pesos ($11.5 million), bringing total profit for the first nine months of the year to 1.85 billion pesos ($39.5 million), up 12.8 percent from the same period a year ago.

Revenues for the third quarter rose 8.9 percent to 11.79 billion pesos ($251.5 million), helped by a 71 percent jump in China sales, the company said.

Aside from its flagship chicken and hamburger stores, Jollibee also owns chains of pizza and pasta stores, bakeshops, and Chinese fast-food restaurants.

Jollibee Chairman Tony Tan Caktiong said Jollibee's China operations now accounts for 10.4 percent of worldwide sales. Total foreign business grew 52.8 percent from last year and now contributes 18.6 percent of total sales compared to only three percent a few years ago, Tan added.

In the Philippines, Jollibee's sales grew by only 2.3 percent in the third quarter as back-to-back typhoons starting in September aggravated consumer belt-tightening.

As of September, Jollibee had a total of 1,861 stores, 327 of them overseas.