Restaurant Franchising & Innovation Summit
On the Restaurant Franchising & Innovation Summit in Myrtle Seashore, Maribeth dela Cruz, president North America for QSR hen model Jollibee, stated the model is poised to succeed in 350 models within the subsequent a number of years. With a concentrate on its roots, innovation and uniqueness, the model is starting to franchise.
datawrkz Vice President of Gross sales Jose Gonzalez interviewed Marybeth dela Cruz, president of Jollibee. Photograph by Willie Lawson//Networld Media Group
March 12, 2025 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Managing Editor, Networld Media Group
Within the final a number of years, the hen wars have dominated traits within the U.S. and Canada. Jollibee, a rising model with sturdy roots within the Philippines, has a dedication to “bringing the enjoyment of consuming” to hen followers all over the place.
On the Restaurant Franchising & Innovation Summit in Myrtle Seashore, South Carolina, this week, Jollibee’s President, North America, Maribeth dela Cruz, stated the model is ready on hitting 350 models within the subsequent a number of years. With franchising simply starting, dela Cruz stated it is an attainable purpose.
Dela Cruz began with the model as a shift supervisor within the Philippines. Now some 35 years in, she got here to the U.S. in 2005 as Jollibee was struggling in North America. She had a imaginative and prescient for the model, one that might preserve near its roots whereas on the similar time making it engaging to the U.S. market. The preliminary purpose was to focus on North American areas with massive Filipino communities, but it surely now units it sights on bigger cities.
“Our mission is to serve great-tasting meals bringing the enjoyment of consuming to everybody,” dela Cruz stated in her keynote tackle. “And that is what this enterprise is all about – individuals and meals.”
Jollibee is a prime model within the Philippines and is having fun with a modicum of success in North America, the place it now has 76 shops within the U.S. and 28 in Canada.
The model began as an ice cream store within the Philippines in 1978. Ice cream was a novelty within the nation, however curiosity quickly dropped off. The rationale? Filipinos stated they wanted one thing hardier earlier than having fun with their ice cream, so Jollibee added burgers, then hen, together with its in style Chickenjoy crispy fried hen. Surprisingly, it has in style plated dinners with objects like spaghetti.
Tradition
Dela Cruz stated Jollibee has a powerful tradition with necessary values of placing the shopper first, the humility to hear and be taught, integrity, pace with excellence and the spirit of household and enjoyable.
“Simply by these values alone, our firm is absolutely centered on placing individuals entrance and heart of the enterprise,” she stated. “That is what actually stored me with the corporate … Jollibee is just like the McDonald’s of the Philippines … It is one in every of two international locations the place a neighborhood model really beat a worldwide big.”
With 1,700 shops in whole, Jollibee additionally has models within the U.Ok. in addition to the U.S. and Philippines, the place individuals collect to have fun events like birthdays, baptisms and graduations.
Challenges
Though Jollibee entered the U.S. in 1998 to primarily cater to Filipino communities, it’s now focusing exterior these markets. Model consciousness stays a problem as a result of though it’s rising, the model continues to be comparatively small within the North American QSR scene. Officers rapidly realized that to develop within the U.S., it must cater to demographics exterior the Filipino-American communities, together with altering the menu.
By way of its preliminary U.S. launch, the model was financially rocky. In 2005, when dela Cruz took over as North American president, she was given the chance to assist the model thrive within the QSR market.
“I knew it was a problem,” dela Cruz stated. “I needed to make it a superb problem. It might both make or break your profession, however … I do consider in my coronary heart that there’s actually a particular place for Jollibee on this market. I am acquainted with it. I have been with the corporate for fairly a while. I have been with operations. I began out as a shift supervisor, and I labored my approach as much as grow to be completely different positions in operations. I knew in my coronary heart that it might work.”
Dela Cruz stated it took about two years to show the corporate round after she got here to the U.S. How did she do it? By going again to the rules of what Jollibee was at first with a concentrate on group, individuals, enjoyable and meals. At that time, it wasn’t only a Filipino model, it has places in Singapore and Hong Kong as properly.
To fight its challenges, Jollibee officers went again to fundamentals on the retailer stage, constructed a crew of normal managers who concentrate on high quality and customary, and strengthened its basis.
Uniqueness
Jollibee’s meals stands out as a result of they add twists to conventional meals. Whereas fried hen, hen tenders and its eponymous hen sandwich are acquainted, the hen is served with a aspect of brown gravy and the Peach Mango Pie makes use of actual Filipino mango flavors. There’s a pineapple Quencher drink accessible that helps the model transcend the usual soft-drink choices. As a substitute of fries, visitors can take pleasure in Adobo rice or spaghetti with Jollibee’s candy pasta sauce.
“You do not discover (spaghetti) in another QSR,” dela Cruz stated. “It is distinctive to Jollibee.” However it’s offered as a aspect dish quite than as a most important dish as it’s served within the Philippines, making it extra approachable to North American audiences.
Franchising
The model has constructed a profitable enterprise mannequin, an necessary piece of the puzzle because it strikes into franchising. The primary franchise retailer is ready to open subsequent month in Queens, New York.
“The imaginative and prescient of the corporate as a complete is to finally grow to be one of many prime 5 restaurant firms on the planet,” dela Cruz stated. “It is like actually a giant imaginative and prescient for the corporate, and North America has been recognized as a key pillar or a key development space. And in order that’s why we consider that we might want to get into franchising to essentially unfold the enjoyment of consuming. We have been working as a company-owned model, like all 104 of them.”
Dela Cruz stated Jollibee can maintain franchising by placing into place the fundamentals it has mastered since she got here to the U.S. and took over as president.
With an AUV of $4 million, Jollibee appears to be doing one thing proper.
“There really is a giant demand for the model,” dela Cruz stated, particularly on social media, the place rabid followers have taken to posting viral movies of Hen Pleasure merchandise in all their glory.
“I believe the phrase has unfold that Jollibee is an attention-grabbing model altogether, together with some greatest hen awards,” dela Cruz stated.
The distinctiveness of the model, the merchandise it affords and the nice and cozy, joyful expertise it offers units it other than the competitors.
With models in solely 14 states, there’s nonetheless loads of room to develop, “and we’re actually enthusiastic about that,” dela Cruz stated.
The keynote tackle was offered by datawrkz, with Vice President of Gross sales Jose Gonzalez internet hosting the occasion.
The Restaurant Franchising & Innovation Summit is a Networld Media Group manufacturing. Networld Media Group owns a lot of B2B publications, together with QSRweb.com, Fastcasual.com and PizzaMarketplace.com.
About Mandy Wolf Detwiler
Mandy Wolf Detwiler is the managing editor at Networld Media Group and the location editor for PizzaMarketplace.com and QSRweb.com. She has greater than 20 years’ expertise masking meals, individuals and locations.
An award-winning print journalist, Mandy brings greater than 20 years’ expertise to Networld Media Group. She has spent practically 20 years masking the pizza trade, from impartial pizzerias to multi-unit chains and each measurement enterprise in between. Mandy has been featured on the Meals Community and has received quite a few awards for her protection of the restaurant trade. She has an insatiable urge for food for studying, and might inform you the place to seek out one of the best slices within the nation after spending 15 years touring and consuming pizza for a residing.
