Jollibee 1998 3rd Quarter Income Up 29.8%

October 30, 1998 PSE CIRCULAR FOR BROKERS NO. 2483-98 JOLLIBEE 1998 3RD QUARTER INCOME UP 29 . 8% Jollibee Foods Corporation in a disclosure to the SEC and PSE reported that its consolidated net income for the 3rd quarter increased 29.8% to P214 million from the P165 million in the same period last year. The company - the country's largest and only publicly-listed food service corporation - attributed the strong earnings primarily from healthy system wide sales growth for both the Jollibee and Greenwich brands. Total systemwide sales reached P3.7 billion, up 30.5% over the P2.8 billion registered the previous year. "We consider ourselves lucky to be in a resilient industry sector. So far, we have managed to register healthy sales and profit growth against the backdrop of the current economic uncertainty affecting the region," company chair and CEO Tony Tan Caktiong said. Jollibee, he added, continues to be cautiously optimistic for the short term as it carefully weighs the impact of the economic situation to its business. "The continuing depreciation of the peso adds pressure to cost of raw materials and operating expenses; however we are seeing improvements in peso during the last few days," he further said. Gross revenues for the quarter rose 28.4% to P2.9 billion from P2.3 billion. The increase resulted from the growth in sales of company-owned stores and royalty and franchise fees from franchising operations during the period. Sales went up 30.2% to P2.7 billion, while royalties and franchise revenues increased 12.7% to P175 million. "Our continuing focus in delivering consistently superior product taste, outstanding customer service, value for money an product affordability for all our brands, - across our wide store network nationwide - coupled with our effective systemwide advertising and promotions has positioned us strongly in a very competitive market and has so far translated to a healthy sales growth and continuing dominant share of market," Tan Caktiong said. prLL As of September 1998, Jollibee had a store network of 281 stores while its pizza brand, Greenwich, had 153 stores. Expansion for both Jollibee and Greenwich brands has remained on track. Jollibee also continued to implement productivity improvement programs at its commissaries and across its store network to improve cost efficiencies and maximize resources. Its hamburger patty processing plant located in its central commissary in Pasig City has recently been awarded an ISO 9002 certification. "Our strong balance sheet - with virtually debt-free and very liquid position - has given us a certain degree of confidence and flexibility to pursue our growth plans and strategies during this challenging period," Tan Caktiong added.