Jollibee to sell Delifrance café chain for P100 million

Jollibee Foods Corp. is dropping its café chain Delifrance as it positions to build “larger" fast-food businesses. The company told the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday that it is selling the assets of Delifrance to CaféFrance Corp., a new subsidiary of listed Euro-Med Laboratories Philippines Inc. The cash deal, which is expected to close by Dec. 31, is worth P100 million. CaféFrance plans to operate a café business in all existing Delifrance branches under a “new café concept and a new brand name," said Jollibee. All employees of Delifrance, which has 23 stores, will be fully absorbed by CafeFrance, it added. Jollibee disclosed that it will also terminate its franchise agreement with Delifrance Asia Ltd. The sale wouldn’t have any “material impact" on the company’s profits, Jollibee’s chief financial officer Ysmael V. Baysa pointed out. Among Jollibee’s food chains, Delifrance lags behind other names in terms of number of stores — Jollibee (702), Chowking (406), Greenwich (221), and Red Ribbon (215). Jollibee also owns 15 outlets of the fast-food chain Manong Pepe’s. Euromed, maker of pharmaceutical products, organized CaféFrance in August to serve as its vehicle into the competitive food-service sector. Earlier, the company said it will initially capitalize CaféFrance at P150 million. In 1995, Delifrance started operating in the Philippines, and then a 50-50 partnership between Jollibee and Delifrance Asia Ltd. took place. In 2006, Jollibee acquired Delifrance Asia Ltd.’s share in the joint-venture company, making the local Delifrance chain a wholly owned subsidiary of Jollibee. Delifrance Asia Ltd., a unit of Singapore–listed Auric Pacific Group Ltd., oversees a network of 230 stores in the region. —JE, GMANews.TV