Jollibee Foods struggles to make profits in Vietnam with 4 brands

The corporation, founded by Filipino billionaire Tony Tan Caktiong, established its first company in the country, Jollibee Vietnam, in 2005, as a fast food operator.

Since then it has branched into other food and beverage brands: Pho 24, Highlands Coffee and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Vietnam.

But Highlands Coffee is its only profitable brand (except for last year), while all three other chains have been making losses for years

Jolibee Vietnam planned to have 300 outlets in the country by 2020, but it only has 150 as of now, lower than its competitors KFC and Lotteria.

It posted a loss of VND43.9 billion (1.83 million) last year.

Pho 24, which sells the traditional Vietnamese rice noodles soup, is also struggling to make profits nearly 20 years after it was established.

At one point, it had targeted 1,000 outlets, but only has 22 now, mostly in Ho Chi Minh City. It also has outlets in South Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines.

It posted a loss of VND89.4 billion last year.

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf is in an even worse situation with just six outlets in HCMC after 14 years in Vietnam. Its prices are 1.5-2 times higher than that of Highlands Coffee and its outlets are mostly located in large malls.

It has been reporting an annual loss of VND26-29 billion in the last four years.

Highlands Coffee, meanwhile, has reported profits for seven of the last eight years.

The chain topped the VND1 trillion revenue mark in 2017 and doubled it in two years to cross VND2 trillion.

Except for last year when it posted a VND19 billion loss due to Covid-19, Highlands Coffee had posted annual profits of VND55-100 billion in the previous four years.

The chain now has 525 outlets in Vietnam and the Philippines.