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[HO CHI MINH CITY] Jollibee launched its 200th outlet in Vietnam on Thursday (Dec 12), and plans to expand its network more quickly in the South-east Asian country in the coming year.

It previously took the fried-chicken restaurant chain seven years to grow from 100 to 200 outlets in the country.

Lam Hong Nguyen, the managing director of Jollibee Vietnam, told reporters at an event in Ho Chi Minh City that the chain opened 40 new locations in Vietnam in 2024 and expects to reach the 300-store mark “very soon”. He did not give a timeframe for this expansion plan.

He added that he was expecting “two-digit” growth in both profit and sales for the chain in Vietnam this year.

Jollibee is currently the third-largest quick-service restaurant (QSR) chain in Vietnam – behind South Korea’s Lotteria and America’s KFC.

The brand has more than 1,700 outlets worldwide – 1,300 of them on its home turf in the Philippines alone. 

At a media briefing briefing, Richard Shin, the chief financial officer at Jollibee Foods Corporation (JFC) – the parent company of the fast-food chain – said: “There’s no reason why Vietnam could not be as big as what the Philippines is to us today.”

Jollibee’s senior executives highlighted the similarities in demographics, economy and culture between the two countries. This is why Vietnam is the company’s largest international market for the brand today, and will stay so for the next five years.

‘Willingness to expand’

Damien Yeo, consumer and retail analyst at research firm BMI, said: “Jollibee’s success in the Vietnamese market stems from its willingness to expand to second and third-tier cities relatively early on.”

However, he noted that the brand faces the challenge of distinguishing itself from the competition, and that its diverse menu presented both pros and cons.

Yeo added that KFC has stronger brand recognition in the fried-chicken segment, while Lotte Group’s wider reach – beyond its restaurant chain to cinemas, malls and supermarkets – had a compounding effect on Vietnamese consumers.

QSRs make up about two-thirds of all restaurant types in Vietnam, indicated GlobalData. Sales at QSRs rose from 73 trillion dong (S$3.9 billion) in 2017 to 111.1 trillion dong in 2022. This reflects a compound annual growth rate of 8.8 per cent.

Analysts said competition is high among QSRs in Vietnam, which has many domestic and international chains in play. However, the segment has significant growth potential, thanks to the country’s rapid urbanisation, a growing middle class and a favourable demographic profile. 

Besides Vietnam and the Philippines, Jollibee has established a presence in some other South-east Asian markets such as Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. However, it is not planning to enter the region’s two largest economies – Indonesia and Thailand – in the next five years.

Analysts remarked that Jollibee tends to grow its presence in countries with a significant number of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), who make up less-prominent communities in Indonesia and Thailand.

Yeo noted that where Jollibee has done well in developed markets, business has almost always been driven primarily by the OFW population there, before the chain built more brand recognition with the local population.

Global acquisitions

Jollibee currently accounts for about half the system-wide sales of the Philippine Stock Exchange-listed food service giant, JFC, which aims to treble its net income by the end of 2028.

JFC’s growth strategy focuses on two key pillars: achieving aggressive organic growth among its portfolio brands and expansion through acquisitions.

The group’s chief executive Ernesto Tanmantiong said that the company has identified four categories for its portfolio – coffee and tea, hamburgers, fried chicken and Chinese cuisines – which it believes have the potential to “be global”.

He underlined at the briefing on Thursday that portfolio companies must achieve “aggressive growth” within the local market and have the capability to go global in the future.

“We believe you can be global only if you are local heroes,” he added.

In 2024 alone, the group acquired Hong Kong dim sum chain Tim Ho Wan for S$20.2 million, and South Korea’s Compose Coffee for US$238 million, adding at least 80 restaurants and 2,470 coffee shops, respectively, to its global network after the deals. 

JFC now has 19 brands in its portfolio; its 9,500 stores are in 32 countries. 

The firm’s consolidated system-wide sales for the third quarter increased 13.2 per cent year on year, driven by the international business’ growth of 20.5 per cent, the company’s latest financial statement showed.

In the first nine months of 2024, it reported a 10.6 per cent increase in revenue and a 22.9 per cent rise in net income.