Hi Everyone!

Sorry that I have been away for a few days but Mama didn’t feel that well and we, all, just rested over the weekend. I hope that you had a great weekend and did fun things with your family.

Mama said that she is taking me to Jollibee because I was a good boy over the weekend. I love going to Jollibee to eat as it has some of my favorite foods.

Mama said that there may be many of our vistors who don’t know about Jollibee. She said that we should do some research on the history of Jollibee so that our friends will know about it.

Jollibee founder Tony Tan Caktiong and his family opened a Magnolia Ice Cream parlor at Cubao in 1975 with Jolibe as the original name. Sometime in 1978, Tony Tan and his brothers and sisters, being partners, engaged the services of a management consultant in the person of Manuel C. Lumba. Consultant Lumba shifted the business focus from ice cream to hamburgers,after his studies showed that a much larger market was waiting to be exploited. Lumba became Tony Tan’s first business and management mentor. Lumba next re-formed the name Jolibe to Jolly Bee and made the two words form a single name Jollibee, but changed the “y” to an “i”. The Jollibee mascot was conceptualized by Lumba inspired by local and foreign children’s books. Lumba next created the product name “Yumburger” as well as the name “Chickenjoy”. He had the company incorporated in order to benefit from incorporation and leased a house on Main St. in Cubao, Quezon City as the first headquarters. Lumba also formulated a long-term marketing strategy, listing up a number of consumer promotions and traffic building schemes. Tony Tan stressed that developing internal strengths was critical. The stores were re-designed, the service transformed into a full self-service, fast-food operation with drive thrus. Not long after, Tony Tan and Manny Lumba went on an observation tour in the United States, attended food service and equipment conventions. Tony Tan placed Manny Lumba in charge of franchise development.

 Since McDonald’s hadn’t yet entered into the Philippines, Tony capitalized on this fact by establishing his brand among the Filipino people. Instead of trying to learn everything from scratch, Tony traveled to the United States to learn the tricks of the trade from the already established chains such as McDonalds. By implementing these tried and true business practices back in the Phlippines, Tony’s hard work began to pay off when his business began to rapidly expand. The division of Jollibee Philippines really tries to serve the specific needs of the Filipino people and its culture by focusing its product development as well as its marketing and advertsing to target the unique and traditional Filipino family.

Today Tony Tan Caktiong serves as a success story and a role model for entreprenuers around the world. This was solified in 2004 when Tony was voted the Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young. The chairman of Ernst and Young, James S. Turley said, “These awards are about celebrating global entrepreneurship and the desire to continually innovate and expand. Tony’s story is a truly inspirational one, on both these counts. We are delighted he has been selected to receive this year’s award.”

 As of December 2007, Jollibee has become one of the biggest fast-food chains in the world with 1,655 stores worldwide and total sales of more than $1 billion. As of March, 2008, JFC has 1,464 stores in the Philippines namely, Jollibee (627), Chowking (377), Greenwich Pizza (236), Red Ribbon Bakeshop (194), Délifrance (28) and Tio Pepe (2). It had 191 stores overseas located in the United States of Amercia (California,Nevada, and New York), U.S. Territories, Brunei, Hong Kong SAR and Vietnam.

To the filipino people, Jollibee is a special place to eat because it makes the meals to the Filipino taste. Myself, I love the burgersteak with gravy and rice plus the fried chicken (Chicken Joy) and their very long and tasty french fries!

For those of our friends in the United States, when you are in California, Nevada or New York, why not forgo your usual trip to McDonalds and make a trip to try Jollibee for your family meal. You will not regret it!

Here is a video below showing the Jollibee song. Have your parents play it for you:

 See you tomorrow!

 

 

Technorati Tags: fast food restaurant, Filipino food, Jollibee

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