Jollibee 2007 profit up 9.4% at P2.36B

Jollibee Foods Corp., the country's largest owner and operator of quick service restaurants, on Thursday reported that its net income for 2007 jumped 9.4 percent to P2.363 billion. However its 4th quarter 2007 profits fell 15.7 to P550 million, compared to the fourth quarter of 2006. In a statement to the Philippine stock Exchange, JFC said system wide retail sales for the entire year grew 14 percent to P51.55 billion. The company said the decrease in its net income in the last quarter of 2007 was owing to the accounting adjustments of P115 million after tax "on various expense items that will be made as part of the year-end audit and in compliance with International Financial Reporting Standards, such as the write-off of assets from closed stores and the provision for the cost of JFC's stock options." Without these adjustments, the company said its net income in the 4th quarter would have been a 2-percent improvement to P665 million. Tony Tan Caktiong, JFC chairman and chief executive officer, said the company will be in a more aggressive mode to open new stores in 2008. "We plan to open a much higher number of stores abroad compared to recent years, particularly Jollibee in the United States and Yonghe King in the People's Republic of China. We hope that these two brands will spearhead the growth of all our brands in foreign operations in the years to come," Tan Caktiong said. The group opened a total of 173 new stores in 2007; 151 in the Philippines and 22 overseas. As of end 2007, JFC has a total of 1,635 stores worldwide. Besides Jollibee and Yonghe King, its other restaurants are Chowking, Greenwich, Red Ribbon, Delifrance and Manong Pepe. - Cheryl Arcibal, GMANews.TV