YCO Corp. has decided not to renew its franchise agreement with Jollibee Foods Corp. and will close the last Jollibee store in the Marianas next month.<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s general manager, Ralph Yumul, said the island\u2019s unstable economic climate forced the family-owned business to end its relationship with the Philippines\u2019 largest food company.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis past year we just saw the [sales] trend going down. Initially, we were juggling with the decision whether to renew the franchise or not and go for another year, knowing some months will incur losses,\u201d he said. \u201cWe wanted to continue operating Jollibee in hopes of a rebound in the economy, but after witnessing the world economy collapse, the high cost of doing business, coupled with the closure of all garment companies and some local establishment on Saipan, the family decided to cut its losses and conserve the resources we have for the near future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yumul said the company\u2019s decision to close Jollibee Garapan took a lot of factors into consideration.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe reviewed the sales this past year. The indicators and reports of increased costs of doing business here in the CNMI, uncertainty in the economy both locally and federally, and the repatriation of guest workers in the CNMI is now on the rise, and is no longer viable to operate [Jollibee],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
August 2009 would\u2019ve marked the 10-year anniversary of YCO\u2019s franchise agreement with Jollibee Philippines.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not really making money anymore. We\u2019ve been struggling about the decision to close it since January 2008. However, due to our desire to prove a gathering place for the Filipinos, especially the kids, we decided to continue the operations. Last November, we finally decided to shut down in February. We didn\u2019t announce it immediately because we didn\u2019t want to lower the morale of our employees.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yumul added that the rise of cheaper dining alternatives on Saipan also affected the local Jollibee store\u2019s sales.<\/p>\n
The fastfood chain used to have three outlets in the Marianas\u2014two on Saipan and one in Guam. Guam closed a couple years ago, while Jollibee Chalan Kanoa shut down in July 2004.<\/p>\n
Yumul said he is sad to see Jollibee buzz away toward the sunset.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a good franchise. YCO Corp. prides itself in our business relationships. If we agree on a venture we will hold our end of the deal and not drop it in the middle of the game. We\u2019ve been involved with it for so long and it\u2019s hard to let go but this business cycle has come full circle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Asked what YCO Corp. plans for the site soon to be orphaned by Jollibee, Yumul only said, \u201cAs for the future, we will leave our options open.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
YCO Corp. has decided not to renew its franchise agreement with Jollibee Foods Corp. and will close the last Jollibee store in the Marianas next month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129923\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}