Jollibee rules out job cuts at Red Ribbon for now (BusinessWorld)

Published in the December 1, 2005 issue of BusinessWorld

Corporate News

BY JENNEE GRACE U. RUBRICO, Senior Reporter

Jollibee rules out job cuts at Red Ribbon for now

Publicly listed Jollibee Foods Corp. is not going to lay off employees of recently acquired Red Ribbon for at least a year.
John Victor R. Tence, Jollibee vice-president for corporate human resources, told BusinessWorld the company has maintained status quo since its acquisition of Red Ribbon last month. He said Jollibee doesn’t have immediate plans of streamlining the bakeshop chain’s work force.
"We’re going to keep the Red Ribbon employees, even the president. Our direction right now is status quo," he said.
He said Red Ribbon employees will maintain the same salary and the same benefits they had under the previous owner. "The only change is in the ownership. The operations will remain the same," he said.
Mr. Tence said Jollibee is keeping all Red Ribbon employees because it is "happy" with the firm’s operations. "It is profitable, it is making money and we’re happy with it," he said.
"We will create synergies down the road," but added that "it will be with them."
"There is no urgent need for us to cut on overheads. We want them to continue with what they do," he said.
He said if there had been a reduction in the work force, it was not because of any employee reduction program but "because of operations."
Mr. Tence said this position will be evaluated after a year.
Earlier, Jorge Q. Concepcion, Red Ribbon executive vice-president and general manager for the Philippine operations, said Jollibee would not be immediately implementing layoffs for Red Ribbon employees.
He had said there may be some streamlining in shared services, such as purchasing, finance, information technology and others.
Jollibee signed a share purchase agreement to acquire Red Ribbon Holdings for P1.8 billion last month.
The 146 Red Ribbon stores will augment Jollibee’s 1,200 stores worldwide, bringing in an additional P2.5 billion in sales to the P26.2-billion consolidated revenues of the country’s largest fastfood chain.
Jollibee Chairman and Chief Executive Tony Tan Caktiong said the firm will focus on growing Red Ribbon’s top line while leveraging the firm’s scale to benefit the newly acquired business.
Red Ribbon Bakeshop maintains operations here and in the US.