Jollibee Foods Corporation (JFC) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Annual Stockholders' Meeting of Jollibee Foods Corporation for the year 2022. We will begin with the Philippine National Anthem.

The annual meeting of the stakeholders of Jollibee Foods Corporation is now called to order. In line with existing statutory requirements as provided under the revised Corporation code and the issuances of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The corporation is conducting its 2022 virtual annual stockholders' meeting. So all our fellow JFC stockholders, thank you for participating in this year's meeting through the voting in absentia system or voting by a proxy and sending your questions to our corporate secretaries official email. Welcome, everyone, to this update on live webcast. In accordance with the corporation's bylaws, as Chairman of the Board of Directors, I am presiding over this meeting. Further, in the event of any Internet connection issues encountered during the proceedings, an officer of the corporation will continue the proceedings. The corporate security, please certify that notices have been sent to the stockholders and that a quorum exists in the meeting to transact business.

Good afternoon, fellow stockholders, in my capacity as Corporate Secretary of Jollibee Foods Corporation, I hereby certify that in compliance with Securities and Exchange Commission requirements, the notice of this meeting has been published in two newspapers of general circulation, Business World and Manila Times, both in print and online versions last June 2022. The notice of meeting and the information statements are made available to our stockholders in the public via the disclosure through the PSE EDGE system and posting in the corporation's website. I certify that there are present in this meeting, in person or by proxy, stockholders representing 809,833,179 shares or 72.835%, which constitute more than a majority of the total issued and outstanding shares. This meeting is therefore competent to transact business for which it was called.

Thank you, Mr. Tan Untiong, for certifying that there exists a quorum to proceed with today's meeting. Good afternoon, everyone. I am Abbey Castello, and I will be your host for this afternoon. We acknowledge the presence of the members of the Board of Directors, JFC's corporate officers and other members of the management team whoever are with us today. Finally, we acknowledge representatives from SyCip Gorres Velayo & Co., Marsh Philippines, Inc. and our other insurance partners, Romulo Law, Picazo Law, various banks, equity research firms and stock brokerage houses and members of the media. For good order in this afternoon's meeting, please allow me to give you a summary of the rules and procedures observed in our online registration and voting in absentia system. These rules and procedures form part of the corporation's information statement as its Annex A, which has been made publicly available via the corporation's statutory submissions and through the corporation's website. First, only stockholders of record as of record date, May 25, 2022, shall be entitled to vote or be voted at this meeting via registration under the voting in absentia system or voting by proxy. Only those who have successfully registered through the online system or who have submitted duly accomplished proxy forms as of June 14, 2022, shall participate in this meeting. Second, stockholders were given until noon today to cast their votes on the matters included in the agenda. We have referred to the results of the tabulation for votes received as of June 17 as a basis and proceeding with this afternoon's meeting. The final results shall be reflected in the minutes of the meeting. Finally, stockholders were invited to submit their questions to the e-mail [email protected]. Among the questions sent, we have selected the questions for this afternoon's program.

Thank you, Ms. Castello. Let us now proceed to the agenda item on the approval of the minutes of the last annual meeting of the stockholders held on June 25, 2021. May we have the Corporate Secretary provide the voting results on this agenda item?

For the foregoing agenda item mentioned by the Chairman, stockholders owning more than a majority of the total issued and outstanding shares get their affirmative votes.

The next item in the agenda is the management's report. A copy of the President's message to our stockholders is included in the annual report that is posted in the corporation's website. We have prepared a prerecorded speech from our President and Chief Executive Officer, to be followed by an audio visual presentation.

A jolly afternoon to all of you. Thank you for joining Jollibee Foods Corporation's Virtual Annual Stockholders Meeting for 2022. Your presence is very much appreciated. In 2021, our hard work enabled us to reverse the losses we incurred in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic. We generated a net income of PHP 6 billion, representing a turnaround of PHP 17.5 billion from the previous year. The global health crisis has shown us the value of having strong leaders and teams who are committed to driving business results despite immense challenges and obstacles. I am very proud to be working with our people in this company and would like to thank all the employees and their families for their resilience and support. Let me share our highlights and accomplishments from 2021. Our system-wide sales, which measures sales to consumers from company-owned and franchise stores grew at a strong 20.3%, while revenues increased by 18.8%. Same-store sales for the Philippines and International businesses increased by 13.4% compared to 2020 with most regions registering growth in double digits. JFC's operating income in 2021 reached PHP 6.3 billion, almost equaling the PHP 6.5 billion we made in 2019. This was our defining achievement for 2021 to have generated an operating income on par with pre-pandemic level, even though our sales were still behind by 13.2%. We were able to achieve this through our business transformation program as well as continuing strong cost and profit management in 2021. If we were to look at the business units, the key drivers of profit turnaround were the Philippines business, which grew its profit significantly. CBTL, which turned its 2020 operating loss into profit and Smashburger, which substantially reduced its 2020 operating loss. Net income attributable to equity holders of the parent company amounted to PHP 6 billion compared to a net loss of PHP 11.5 billion in 2020. The strong growth of our business versus 2020 was largely due to the reopening of markets as quarantine restrictions to overcome COVID-19 were relaxed or lifted by the government. Equally important were the initiatives we took to aid the recovery of our businesses. We introduced new products, which were very well liked by our customers. We also continued to strengthen our capability for off-premise sales and e-commerce by investing on digital applications, that made our brands more accessible to our customers. We did this as we continue to build our partnerships with food aggregators, both in the Philippines and abroad. As our customers return to our stores for dine-in and takeout, our delivery business continued to do very well. This represented a significant factor of sales growth for our businesses across various countries. In the Philippines, for example, driven by increased transactions from the brand's delivery apps and third-party aggregators, delivery sales went up 4x higher than the 2019 pre-pandemic level. Omnichannel is important to the business as it provided consumer convenience during and post COVID restrictions. Moreover, to attract more consumers and increase brand awareness, we strengthened the presence of our brands in major digital platforms. The pandemic may have brought many challenges to our economy, but we consistently pursued opportunities for long-term growth. We continued to expand our business across different markets with the opening of 399 stores, 85 in the Philippines and 314 overseas. We spent PHP 7.9 billion in capital expenditures in 2021, mostly for new store expansion and the renovation of existing stores. We increased our commitment to Titan Dining LP, the private equity fund that owns the Tim Ho Wan brand and company-owned Tim Ho Wan stores to SGD 225 million. The increase is intended to fund the working capital requirements of Tim Ho Wan as well as to facilitate the condition of other projects. We also added a new foreign restaurant brand to our Philippine business, Yoshinoya. This is JFC's first Japanese cuisine restaurant chain in the Philippines, a strong addition to the foreign franchise brands currently in our portfolio. During the year, we also announced our plan to purchase a 51% stake in Milkshop International Co. Ltd. The company that owns Milkshop, a popular Taiwanese bubble tea brand with over 250 stores, mostly in Taiwan. JFC invested PHP 1.9 billion in the form of cash subscription, representing 38.7% interest in Central Hub, a company in the industrial real estate business. The plan will include exchange of certain parcel of JFC's land assets within 2022. Subject to fulfillment of certain closing conditions for shares of common stock of Central Hub. This new venture will allow JFC to reduce its assets tied to real estate properties. Central Hub will register and operate as a real estate investment trust and lease its shares on the Philippine Stock Exchange Incorporated. JFC will then use the proceeds from this eventual IPO to finance our real estate investment for JFC's new stores and commissaries. In the management of our financial position, which has become so important during the pandemic, we are proud to report significant achievements. We were able to improve the maturity of our financial obligations by making them longer and distributed over several years. We manage our foreign exchange risk by reducing our U.S. dollar obligations. We improved our financial ratios related to debts and other financial obligations. Ensuring that we are meeting our financial covenants and further strengthening JFC's credit standing. We were able to achieve all this while still financing our organic expansion, acquisition of new businesses and declaration of cash dividends. We did all this by issuing peso preferred shares using the proceeds to pay off $203.5 million worth of perpetual bonds and some of our loans, and increasing our profit and cash flow as represented by our earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The issuance of the peso preferred shares amounting to PHP 12 billion in October 2021 was the first in JFC's history. The shares were 3.11x oversubscribed and represented some of the most competitive, if not the most competitive cash dividend rates ever issued in the Philippines. JFC Completed 2021 in a strong financial standard with total assets at PHP 210.8 billion almost the same as the 2020 level with a cash balance and financial assets of PHP 39.2 billion. While we continue to reveal our business and invest for the long term, we also remain true to our commitment to the community through the Jollibee Group Foundation, our social responsibility arm. The foundation's farmer entrepreneurship program, or FEP has helped improve the capacity of smallholder farmers in terms of greater productivity and market competitiveness. Since 2008, 17 farmer groups trained under this program have delivered nearly 9 million kilos of vegetables equivalent to more than PHP 360 million worth of sales. In 2021, FEP Farmer Group delivered 486,000 kilos of vegetables to the JFC group. FEP also launched its first online course on agro entrepreneurs in cooperation with Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan to help more farmers learn the approach or directly selling to institutional markets. Meanwhile, since March 2020, JFC has distributed more than 8.1 million meals to assist those affected by the bundling. It also continued to provide meals to those affected by various natural calamities. This concludes my report for 2021. Let me now give you an update on the current situation of our business. In the first quarter of 2022, our business performed well and even set a new record for sales. System wide sales of our businesses in China, North America Philippine brands, EMEA, including Super Foods, have reached pre-pandemic level, driven by continued store expansion. The store network of our foreign business for Q1 2022 grew by 20.3% organically compared to Q1 2019, in line with our long-term growth model. JFC Generated an operating income of PHP 2 billion, driven by the acceleration of profit growth in the Philippines. Net income attributable to equity holders of the parent company for the first quarter amounted to PHP 2.3 billion, compared to PHP 152.6 million for the first quarter of 2021. The net income for the first quarter of 2022 includes gains from the transfer of certain land properties of the GFC Group to Central Hub sale of other land properties amounting to PHP 1.8 billion. As I mentioned in my update earlier, the land conveyance is part of the JFC Group's plan to invest in Central Hub. The plan includes additional investments by the GFC Group through exchange of its land assets the Central Hub share of stocks, which was put in effect on March 24, 2022, as agreed by the parties. On April 19, 2022, JFC declared a regular cash dividend of PHP 1.007 per share performance stock. PHP 8.20525 per share for Series A preferred shares and PHP 10.60125 per share for Series B preferred shares. Our shareholder return, which represents the increase in the JFC share price and the value of dividends was 11.7% in 2021. Our goal is to increase long-term shareholder value, and we believe that we are on track to deliver this. My positive outlook is based on our track record. We managed to be resilient in the face of adversity. This is partly due to the nature of our business. Food and food service are vital in any society we will always respond to this basic need. We're also proud and fortunate to have steadfast men and women in our organization, supported by our business partners, we have made outstanding achievements even amidst the most trying times. On behalf of the JFC Board and the leadership team, I would like to thank all our employees for their tremendous efforts that allowed us to end 2021 with very solid results. We also thank our franchisees and business partners for working tenaciously with us to provide our customers with great tasting food and excellent service and for growing the business with us even against big challenges. To our shareholders and customers. Thank you for your continued support for our brands and your unwavering trust and belief in Jollibee Foods Corporation. And to the JFC Board of Directors, thank you for contributing your business expertise and industry knowledge. [Presentation]

And that concludes the President's report.

The next agenda item is the approval of the audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2021, and annual report. May we have the Corporate Secretary provide the voting results on this agenda item?

For the foregoing agenda item mentioned by the Chairman, stockholders owning more than a majority of the total issued and outstanding shares get their affirmative votes.

The next item in the agenda is the ratification of the actions taken by the Board of Directors and officers of the corporation since the last Annual Stockholders' Meeting on June 25, 2021. May we have the corporate Circuitry provide the voting results on this agenda item?

For the foregoing agenda item mentioned by the Chairman, stockholders owning more than a majority of the total issued and outstanding shares give their affirmative votes.

The next item in the agenda is the election of the members of the Board of Directors.

Mr. Chairman, following our bylaws, the nominees included in the final list of candidates submitted to me by the nomination committee are Dr. Tony Tan Caktiong; William Tan Untiong; Mr. Ernesto Tanmantiong; Mr. Antonio Chua Poe Eng; Mr. Ang Cho Sit; Retired Chief Justice, Artemio V. Panganiban; Mr. Cesar V. Purisima as Independent Director; Mr. Kevin Goh, as Independent Director; Ms. Ee Eong Chong as Independent Director. In compliance with statutory requirements, the information on the nominees is included in the corporation's information statement.

Considering that the Board has 9 seats and only 9 candidates have been nominated, the secretary is shared by order to cash all votes in favor of all those mentioned. Thus, the following are elected as members of the Board of Directors: Tony Tan Caktiong, William Tan Untiong, Ernesto Tanmantiong, Antonio Chua Poe Eng, Ang Cho Sit, Retired Chief Justice, Artemio V. Panganiban, Cesar V. Purisima as Independent Director, Kevin Goh as independent director, Ee Rong Chong as Independent Director. Congratulations to the newly elected members of the Board of Directors. The organizational meeting of the newly elected directors shall be held immediately after this meeting. We shall pursue to the next item in the agenda, the appointment of external auditors for the fiscal year ending 2022. We wish to inform everyone that the audited financial statements for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2021, was prepared by the corporation and reviewed by the auditing firm of f SyCip, Gorres, Velayo & Company. May we have the Corporate Secretary provide the voting results on this agenda item?

For the foregoing agenda item mentioned by the Chairman, stockholders owning more than a majority of the total issued and outstanding shares give their affirmative votes.

Thank you, Mr. Tan Untiong. Prior to the meeting, our stockholders sent their questions and feedback to the corporate secretary @jollibee.com.ph in your address. Among the questions sent, we have selected the following questions for this afternoon's program. For question number one, what is your post-pandemic growth strategy? We requested President and Chief Executive Officer; Mr. Ernesto Tanmantiong to answer the question.

Thank you for the question. With a solid recovery achieved in 2021, we are now geared for further growth in 2022 and the years ahead. To achieve our vision, we are focused on a good long growth strategy. First is to expand our market leadership in our fast growing home market here in the Philippines by leveraging our multi-brand portfolio to compete at different price points and market segments, while strategically expanding our store network, especially with our foreign franchise brands, given the success of our Burger King, Panda Express and Yoshinoya. Second, we will continue to expand strategically and profitably in international markets through aggressive organic expansion and strategic acquisition in our 3 pillar markets: these are Philippines, China and North America. We are focused on continuing to improve operating efficiency and profitability of our recent acquisitions. The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf and Smashburger. CBTL, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf is well positioned in the lucrative coffee and tea beverage segment with clear differentiation. In Q1, the brand saw a strong double-digit system-wide sales growth of 33% and same-store sales growth of 23% and delivered positive operating income. As we continue to strengthen the CBTL management team, we expect continued growth for the full year, more so as pandemic restrictions continue to ease. For Smashburger, we have solidified 3 pillars for success. First, strengthening its organization structure; second, rebranding across stores, mine and campaigns. And third, improved store box economics for earlier and higher returns. As of Q1, system-wide sales grew by 14.2%, and same-store sales grew by 4.5%. We anticipate our best base business of existing stores to be profitable by the second half of 2022 and will carry in the full year of 2023. I am confident that with our strong leadership team, passionate employees, dedicated franchisees and improved pillars, we will be able to achieve our long-term growth plans.

Thank you, Mr. Tanmantiong. For question number two, how is JFC managing inflation? We request our Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Richard Shin, to answer the question.

Thank you for your question. Inflation is something we're always on the watch out for. But the good thing is that we have overcome similar challenges before and have been able to grow. The food industry, in general, has been resilient to crisis because it is an essential need. Even as we adjust prices, we have kept these increases to a minimum. So our products remain affordable to our customers. The QSR industry has likewise benefited when customers who have shifted from full services to QSR as they find it more affordable. JFC has also effectively mitigated cost inflation risk through a multipronged approach with -- sorry, which harnesses our capable organization and effective management of inventory and supply chain processes. We have robust processes for planning through inflation that has been built over time and experience. This includes global procurement initiatives and constant cost analysis and implementation of controls across all areas of our supply chain. Starting in 2021, we have been able to stay ahead of inflation for the most part. Because of our inflation mitigation plans, our consolidated gross profit margin has remained strong at 16.1% in Q1 similar to the average growth profit margin of 16.3% in 2019.

Thank you, Mr. Shin, and that concludes our question-and-answer portion for this year's Annual Stockholders' Meeting. We request our Chairman of the Board to proceed with the last item in our agenda.

There being no other matters in the agenda, I hereby adjourn this meeting. Thank you so much for everyone's participation. Stay safe.