July 28, 2008
The Philippines’ largest fast food company continues to makes strides offshore as part of its expansion.
Jollibee Foods Corp. announced today that it has acquired 12% equity interest in Chow Fun Holdings LLC, a US-based restaurant operator, for the sum pof $950,000.
Chow Fun runs and manages Jinja Bar and Bistro, an Asian restaurant that has two outlets in New Mexico.
In a statement released, Jollibee explained that the objective for acquiring a stake in Chow Fun is in line with the company’s thrust to “enhance its capability in developing Asian food restaurant concepts for the mainstream consumers in the United States as part of its long-term strategy.”
Last month, the Philippine food giant also acquired a 70% stake in Taiwanese food business, Lao Dong, worth about US$1.4 million.
In the Philippines, Jollibee’s burgers and chicken regularly outperform global fast food giants McDonald’s and KFC.
July 21, 2008
After a few years away, two of BBDO Guerrero’s creative minds are returning to the agency next month.
BBDO Guerrero announced that Brandie Tan and Tin Sanchez have been welcomed back to the agency and have been appointed as Head of Art and Head of Copy respectively. The duo will report directly to the agency’s joint ECDs Simon Welsh and Joel Limchoc.
Tan came to BBDO in 2000 while Sanchez joined the agency in 2003 where they quickly impressed their bosses and their clients with their creative outputs, becoming partners in crime in terms of creative results. The two moved to JWT Manila in 2005 as Creative Directors where they furthered their creative success winning for the country its first ever Cannes Gold Lion last year. 2007 also saw the couple move to Lowe vietnam as joint ECDs.
Tan will take up the mantle of Head of Art once current head Joni Caparas relocates to Europe while Sanchez will take over the post vacated by Welsh when the former was promoted to joint ECD in May this year.
July 21, 2008
Last Saturday, my wife and I managed to catch Dark Knight at SM Muntinlupa (for the uninitiated, SM Muntinlupa is located along the National Hi-Way on the way to Laguna in the area of Muntinlupa called Tunasan which is why others refer to it as SM Tunasan) for its first screening at 11:30pm.
Before the movie, we had to first empty our bladders and I was amazingly surprised to find out that portion of the CR’s mirror was vandalized by what appeared to be red ink writing a message “Why so serious?”.
Of course, those who’ve been hit by online campaign for the latest movie installment of Batman knows that the line is muttered by Batman arch-nemesis the Joker (played by the late Heath Ledger) but so as not to create panic by unsuspecting people, below the message they pasted the Batman logo which was imprinted with “Dark Knight”.
My wife confirmed that there was a similar “message” inside the ladies CR.
Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to catch a snapshot. But good effort to the promoters of the flick as they made the movie “interactive”.
And it was a helluva good movie too!
July 2, 2008
Philippine property developer, Fort Bonifacio Development Corporation recently gave Crush Philippines the nod to develop AHA!, its quarterly publication for the Bonifacio Global City (BGC).
Bonifacio Global City is currently being positioned as the Philippines’ next premier business destination thanks to its current infrastructure of corporate offices, high-rise and low-rise condo units, entertainment and recreational facilities, and commercial establishments.
AHA! is envisioned to be a community magazine to be distributed to people working and living in BGC.
Crush Philippines will be in charge of developing the magazine from concepts, stories, up to production with the aim of developing a readership in the BGC community.
“The energy of the development speaks of a true passion — of builders, management, residents and visitors,” said Crush Managing Director Marco Nieto. “Crush Philippines is latching on to this idea of passion for the new direction that it is taking Bonifacio Global City’s publication in.”
June 27, 2008
It must be something cultural.
While FaceBook and MySpace, the most popular social networking sites in the Western hemisphere, are encountering challenges in terms of revenues, it looks like the two sites’ Chinese counterpart has reaped in the rewards.
China-based QQ reported an income of US$523 million, four times the reported revenue of FaceBook at US$150 million according to +8*. The popular social network site also absorbs a US$50 million loss while QQ netted an operating profit of US$224 million.
A massive chunk of QQ’s revenue last year came from virtual goods and games and 21% came from mobile services. This leaves about only 13% of the revenue coming from online ads which still comes as a hefty US$67 million.
QQ, which boasts about 300 million users (although many users have multiple accounts) has been dubbed the largest social networking, instant messaging and gaming platform in China.
