After posting negative growth in the first half, fast food giant Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC) ended the third quarter with a net income of P513 million, up 4.6 percent from P490 million a year earlier.

In its financial report filed with the Philippine Stock Exchange, the company said its revenues grew 14.3 percent to P10.8 billion as more consumers ate out during the period under review.

System-wide sales, a measure of all sales to consumers both from company-owned and franchised stores, rose 11.6 percent to P14.06 billion from P12.6 billion.

"In the Philippines, same store sales grew in practically all our brands and in all regions. Based on market research, consumers ate out last quarter about as frequently as in the same period last year and spent a little bit more due to inflation," said JFC chairman and chief executive Tony Tan Caktiong.

"We also attribute our strong sales to the growth in volume and value of output of the agriculture sector in the second quarter. The rise in the prices of agricultural products should have brought more income to the households in the provinces," he added.

Caktiong noted that store sales were aided by the continued rise in overseas Filipino remittances, which were compounded by the depreciation of the peso.
 
Meanwhile, JFC's foreign businesses also performed well, growing by 18 percent in July to September. Caktiong said new store openings overseas were catching up with those locally.
 
"From January to September, we had opened 53 new stores abroad compared to 64 in the Philippines," he said.
 
As of end September, JFC has 1,490 local stores in its portfolio: Jollibee, 641; Chowking, 379; Greenwich, 231; Red Ribbon, 205; Delifrance, 27; and Manong Pepe’s, 7. It also operates 228 stores abroad, mostly Yonghe King in China.
 
JFC earlier borrowed $100 million from various financial institutions to support its investments in China.