Jollibee North America president says company is ready for next-level growth

Restaurant Franchising & Innovation Summit

At the Restaurant Franchising & Innovation Summit in Myrtle Beach, Maribeth dela Cruz, president North America for QSR chicken brand Jollibee, said the brand is poised to reach 350 units in the next several years. With a focus on its roots, innovation and uniqueness, the brand is beginning to franchise.

datawrkz Vice President of Sales Jose Gonzalez interviewed Marybeth dela Cruz, president of Jollibee. Photo by Willie Lawson//Networld Media Group

March 12, 2025 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Managing Editor, Networld Media Group

In the last several years, the chicken wars have dominated trends in the U.S. and Canada. Jollibee, a rising brand with strong roots in the Philippines, has a commitment to “bringing the joy of eating” to chicken fans everywhere.

At the Restaurant Franchising & Innovation Summit in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, this week, Jollibee’s President, North America, Maribeth dela Cruz, said the brand is set on hitting 350 units in the next several years. With franchising just beginning, dela Cruz said it’s an attainable goal.

Dela Cruz started with the brand as a shift manager in the Philippines. Now some 35 years in, she came to the U.S. in 2005 as Jollibee was struggling in North America. She had a vision for the brand, one that would keep close to its roots while at the same time making it attractive to the U.S. market. The initial goal was to target North American regions with large Filipino communities, but it now sets it sights on larger cities.

“Our mission is to serve great-tasting food bringing the joy of eating to everyone,” dela Cruz said in her keynote address. “And that’s what this business is all about – people and food.”

Jollibee is a top brand in the Philippines and is enjoying a modicum of success in North America, where it now has 76 stores in the U.S. and 28 in Canada.

The brand started as an ice cream shop in the Philippines in 1978. Ice cream was a novelty in the country, but interest soon dropped off. The reason? Filipinos said they needed something hardier before enjoying their ice cream, so Jollibee added burgers, then chicken, including its popular Chickenjoy crispy fried chicken. Surprisingly, it has popular plated dinners with items like spaghetti.

Culture

Dela Cruz said Jollibee has a strong culture with important values of putting the customer first, the humility to listen and learn, integrity, speaking with excellence and the spirit of family and fun.

“Just by those values alone, our company is really focused on putting people front and center of the business,” she said. “That’s what really kept me with the company … Jollibee is like the McDonald’s of the Philippines … It’s one of two companies where a local brand actually beat a global giant.”

With 1,700 stores in total, Jollibee also has units in the U.K. as well as the U.S. and Philippines, where people gather to celebrate occasions like birthdays, baptisms and graduations.

Challenges

Although Jollibee entered the U.S. in 1998 to mainly cater to Filippino communities, it is now focusing outside those markets. Brand awareness remains a challenge because although it is growing, the brand is still relatively small in the North American QSR scene. Officials quickly realized that to grow in the U.S., it would have to cater to demographics outside the Filipino-American communities, including changing the menu.

Through its initial U.S. launch, the brand was financially rocky. In 2005, when dela Cruz took over as North American president, she was given the opportunity to help the brand thrive in the QSR market.

“I knew it was a challenge,” dela Cruz said. “I wanted to make it a good challenge. It could either make or break your career, but … I do believe in my heart that there is really a special place for Jollibee in this market. I’m familiar with it. I’ve been with the company for quite some time. I’ve been with operations. I started out as a shift supervisor, and I worked my way up to become different positions in operations. I knew in my heart that it could work.”

Dela Cruz said it took about two years to turn the company around after she came to the U.S. How did she do it? By going back to the principles of what Jollibee was in the beginning with a focus on community, people, fun and food. At that point, it wasn’t just a Filipino brand, it has locations in Singapore and Hong Kong as well.

To combat its challenges, Jollibee officials went back to basics at the store level, built a team of general managers who focus on quality and standard, and strengthened its foundation.

Uniqueness

Jollibee’s food stands out because they add twists to traditional food. While fried chicken, chicken tenders and its eponymous chicken sandwich are familiar, the chicken is served with a side of brown gravy and the Peach Mango Pie uses real Filipino mango flavors. There is a pineapple Quencher drink available that helps the brand go beyond the standard soft-drink offerings. Instead of fries, guests can enjoy Adobo rice or spaghetti with Jollibee’s sweet pasta sauce.

“You don’t find (spaghetti) in any other QSR,” dela Cruz said. “It’s unique to Jollibee.” But it is presented as a side dish rather than as a main dish as it is served in the Philippines, making it more approachable to North American audiences.

Franchising

The brand has built a successful business model, an important piece of the puzzle as it moves into franchising. The first franchise store is set to open next month in Queens, New York.

“The vision of the company as a whole is to eventually become one of the top five restaurant companies in the world,” dela Cruz said. “It’s like really a big vision for the company, and North America has been identified as a key pillar or a key growth area. And so that’s why we believe that we will need to get into franchising to really spread the joy of eating. We’ve been operating as a company-owned brand, like all 104 of them.”

Dela Cruz said Jollibee can sustain franchising by putting into place the basics it has mastered since she came to the U.S. and took over as president.

With an AUV of $4 million, Jollibee seems to be doing something right.

“There actually is a big demand for the brand,” dela Cruz said, especially on social media, where rabid fans have taken to posting viral videos of Chicken Joy products in all their glory.

“I think the word has spread that Jollibee is an interesting brand altogether, including some best chicken awards,” dela Cruz said.

The uniqueness of the brand, the products it offers and the warm, joyful experience it provides sets it apart from the competition.

With units in only 14 states, there’s still plenty of room to grow, “and we’re really excited about that,” dela Cruz said.

The keynote address was presented by datawrkz, with Vice President of Sales Jose Gonzalez hosting the event.

The Restaurant Franchising & Innovation Summit is a Networld Media Group production. Networld Media Group owns a number of B2B publications, including QSRweb.com, Fastcasual.com and PizzaMarketplace.com.

About Mandy Wolf Detwiler

Mandy Wolf Detwiler is the managing editor at Networld Media Group and the site editor for PizzaMarketplace.com and QSRweb.com. She has more than 20 years’ experience covering food, people and places.

An award-winning print journalist, Mandy brings more than 20 years’ experience to Networld Media Group. She has spent nearly two decades covering the pizza industry, from independent pizzerias to multi-unit chains and every size business in between. Mandy has been featured on the Food Network and has won numerous awards for her coverage of the restaurant industry. She has an insatiable appetite for learning, and can tell you where to find the best slices in the country after spending 15 years traveling and eating pizza for a living.

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