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Isa Martinez · · 6 min readJollibee’s café-buying spree brews a showdown with startups
With additional analysis by Miguel Cordon
The scent of butter and coffee drifts onto High Street Café, a food hall located in Metro Manila, Philippines. Inside, bakers stack croissants and kouign-amanns as baristas fire up espresso machines.
A month in, Tiong Bahru Bakery’s first outpost outside Singapore is buzzing. The crowd? Young, well-heeled, and eager for the flaky pastries served on blue and teal ceramics.
Behind the bakery sits a familiar sight – an outlet of Jollibee, the Philippines’ largest fast-food chain famous for its Chickenjoy fried chicken.
What do these food and beverage brands have in common? They share the same parent firm.
Valued at US$4.5 billion, Jollibee Foods Corporation (JFC) has made some notable moves into the café scene lately.
The largest fast-food chain in the Philippines, Jollibee is famous for Chickenjoy – its crispy, juicy fried chicken. / Photo credit: Tupungato/Shutterstock
Besides Tiong Bahru Bakery, the company also launched Singapore’s Common Man Coffee Roasters in the Philippines last year. In 2024, JFC bought the majority controlling stake in South Korea-based Compose Coffee for US$238 million.
This deal follows the F&B giant’s US$350 million purchase of Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf six years ago. So why is JFC still doubling down on trendy coffee brands?
Betting on “affordable luxury”
Earlier this week, the company reported a 17.7% net income for 2024, fueled by strong domestic demand and its acquisition of Compose Coffee.
The Korean coffeehouse chain accounted for 7.9% of the growth in JFC’s international business’ system-wide sales (SWS), the company said.
Of course, the acquisition quickly added 2,629 stores to JFC’s global footprint, which could explain the high contribution.
Its coffee and tea business, which includes Compose Coffee and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, opened 361 shops in 2024 and currently has a total of over 5,000 stores. The unit “saw strong sales and operating profit growth in 2024,” noted Richard Shin, JFC’s group chief financial and risk officer in the latest earnings release.
Jollibee takes on coffee startups
Who will win over the mid-market?
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