WhereIsAtlas · Fast food
Jollibee
The Philippine fast-food chain that beat McDonald's at home — and is now exporting fried chicken and sweet spaghetti around the world
Active — Jollibee is very much alive: a Philippine fast-food institution and the flagship brand of Jollibee Foods Corporation, which runs thousands of restaurants in the Philippines and across Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North America. In 2026 the group trimmed its expansion plans and closed a batch of restaurants even as it pushed ahead with a plan to list its international business in Hong Kong.
Jollibee started in 1975 as an ice cream parlour in Cubao, Quezon City, opened by Tony Tan Caktiong and his family. When customers kept ordering the sandwiches and hot meals more than the ice cream, the family pivoted: by 1978 the business was incorporated as Jollibee Foods Corporation and had become a fast-food restaurant built around hamburgers, fried chicken and a menu tuned to Filipino tastes rather than imported to them.
That instinct is the whole story. When McDonald's arrived in the Philippines in the 1980s, Jollibee did not retreat; it competed, and won. Its Chickenjoy — crispy fried chicken served with rice and gravy — its sweet-style Jolly Spaghetti and its Champ burger turned it into the country's largest fast-food chain, and by the 1990s it was beating the world's biggest restaurant company in its own home market. Jollibee listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange in 1993.
Expansion abroad has followed two tracks. The Jollibee brand itself has followed Filipino communities and curiosity overseas — from its first United States store in California in the late 1990s to a growing North American footprint that reached 109 restaurants with a Midtown Manhattan opening in 2026 — while the parent company has bought its way into new categories and countries entirely.
Those acquisitions built a much larger group: Chowking, Greenwich, Red Ribbon, Mang Inasal and Highlands Coffee in the Philippines and Vietnam; stakes in Smashburger, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Taiwan's Milksha, Tim Ho Wan dim sum and, in 2024, a majority stake in South Korea's Compose Coffee. Jollibee Foods Corporation is now one of Asia's biggest restaurant operators, chaired by founder Tony Tan Caktiong.
The 2020s have brought adult-sized problems with the growth. In 2026 the group cut its store-expansion and spending targets and closed a reported 207 restaurants as consumer spending softened, even as it announced plans to spin off and list its international business in Hong Kong. Jollibee the brand, meanwhile, keeps opening: the chain is still the market leader in the Philippines and one of the fastest-growing restaurant names in North America.
Quick facts
- Founded
- 1975 as an ice cream parlour in Cubao, Quezon City
- Incorporated
- 1978, as Jollibee Foods Corporation
- Founder
- Tony Tan Caktiong (chairman)
- Signature items
- Chickenjoy, Jolly Spaghetti, Yumburger, Champ
- Home market
- The Philippines — where it outsells McDonald's
- Listed
- Philippine Stock Exchange, 1993
- Group brands
- Chowking, Greenwich, Red Ribbon, Mang Inasal, Smashburger, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Compose Coffee and others
- North America
- 109 stores as of May 2026
- 2026
- Expansion targets cut; 207 restaurants closed
- Next move
- Spin-off and Hong Kong listing of the international business
Sources
- Jollibee - Wikipedia — Wikipedia (2026-09-15)
- History and Milestones — Jollibee Group (2026-09-15)
- About Jollibee — Jollibee Philippines (2026-09-15)
- Jollibee chain reaches 109 stores in North America — Philippine Daily Inquirer (2026-09-15)
- Jollibee closes 207 restaurants, cuts expansion — TheStreet (2026-09-15)
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