Tony Tan Caktiong

Tony Tan Caktiong, 2016

Tony Tan Caktiong (chin. 陳 覺 中) (born January 5, 1953 ) is a Filipino entrepreneur of Chinese descent. He is the founder and president of the largest Filipino fast food chain, Jollibee, and is ranked 6th on Forbes' 2010 Richest Filipino list with assets of $ 980 million.

Caktiong is the son of a Chinese immigrant family who originally came from the Fujian Province in China . His father first worked as a cook in Manila 's Chinatown and later the family moved to Davao City , where the father opened a small restaurant. Tony Tan Caktiong grew up in Davao City with 6 siblings. He later moved back to Manila, where he first attended Chiang Kai Shek College , a Chinese-Filipino school, then studied at the University of Santo Tomás and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree as a chemical engineer. Just married, he opened the Cubao Icecream House , a Magnolia ice cream franchise branch in Quezon City in 1975 . However, since he quickly noticed that his customers wanted more than just ice cream, he expanded the menu to include typical fast food items such as hamburgers, French fries, spaghetti and grilled chicken. In 1978, with the support of his family in Metro Manila , Caktiong already operated 6 branches of his ice cream parlors with an expanded fast food range and in the same year founded the fast food company Jollibee and from then on concentrated on further expansion on the fast food range and its further development.

When the American fast food chain McDonald’s entered the Philippine market in 1981, Caktiong was faced with the decision to either become a McDonald’s franchisee or to compete with the giant with Jollibee. Caktiong opted for the latter and was able to assert itself against the competitor, which many regarded as overpowering, not least because of his knowledge of the culinary preferences of his customers and his focus on local designs. For example, Jollibee offered dishes with rice as part of the menu at an early stage , whereas McDonald's did not adapt to local preferences until much later.

With the increasing success of his company Jollibee, Caktiong was able to buy additional restaurant chains. In 1994, Jollibee initially acquired 80% of Greenwich Pizza , and then took over the remaining 20% ​​in 2006. In 2000 the chain Chowking , which specializes in Chinese fast food, was taken over , and another five years later the Red Ribbon Bakeshops , which offer a range of cakes and tarts, were bought. Already in 2004 the Jollibee Food Corporation (JFC) together with the acquired parts of the company had a market share of 65% of the fast food market in the Philippines. The Philippines are the only country in which a local fast food provider has succeeded in asserting itself against McDonald's and relegating its competitor to second place.

In 2004 Tony Tan Caktiong was named World Entrepreneur of the Year 2004 by Ernst & Young in Monaco . He was the first Filipino to receive this award.

As of 2006, Caktiong's Jollibee Food Corporation, as the exclusive franchisee in the Philippines, also operated several Delifrance branches, a provider of predominantly French baked goods, but gave up this division again at the end of 2010 because they wanted to concentrate more on the fast food business with the larger chains . As part of this, in 2010 JFC took over 70% of the shares in Mang Inasal Philippines Inc. , the operator of the Mang Inasal restaurant chain , which was founded in 2003 and mainly offers charcoal-grilled chicken.

Motivated by the great success of his company in the Philippines, Caktiong also expanded abroad with its Jollibee Food Corporation, concentrating primarily on countries with a high proportion of Filipino guest workers. These were initially China and the USA , later branches in Saudi Arabia , Hong Kong , Vietnam , Malaysia , Brunei , Guam , Taiwan , Indonesia , the United Arab Emirates and most recently also in Qatar .

In 2007 the Jollibee Group had a total of 1,559 branches, some of them own and some on a franchise basis. Specifically, 583 restaurants in the Philippines were on Jollibee, 367 on Chowking, 237 on Greenwich, 163 on Red Ribbon and 35 on Delifrance, the rest to smaller restaurant chains that also belong to the group, such as Manong Pepe's or Tita Frita's Uling Uling. In 2007 there were a total of 174 branches abroad. After a certain saturation of the domestic market, the expansion of Caktiong's group of companies has been increasing to foreign countries in recent years. By June 30, 2010, the number of Filipino branches had increased by only 25 to 1584, while the number of foreign branches more than doubled with an increase from 183 branches to 357.

In addition to his role as CEO of Jollibee Food Corporation, Caktiong has been a member of the board of directors of First Gen Corporation , a Philippine electricity producer, since 2005 . On July 8, 2008, he was also elected to the Board of Directors of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT).

Tony Tan Caktiong is married to Grace Tan Caktiong and they have 3 children. Grace Tan Caktiong is the Chair of the Jollibee Foundation .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ forbes.com The 40 Richest in the Philippines , accessed April 22, 2011
2. ↑ ^{a b} asiantaipans.com: Tony Tan Caktiong ( Memento from February 23, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (Engl.)
3. ↑ ey.com: Entrepreneur of the Year - Tony Tan Caktiong ( Memento from July 7, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Tony Tan Caktiong and the Jollibee Success Story , accessed April 22, 2011
5. ↑ transformationalleadershiphq.com: Tony Tan Caktiong ( Memento of the original from June 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English), accessed April 24, 2011 
6. ↑ Manila Bulletin: Jollibee controls 65% of the fast food market , accessed on April 24, 2011
7. ↑ Jollibee versus McDonald's ( Memento of the original from October 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English), accessed April 24, 2011 
8. ↑ business.inquirer.net: Jollibee sells Delifrance ( Memento of the original from September 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English), accessed April 22, 2011 
9. ↑ ABS-CBN News: Jollibee buys Mang Inasal for 3 billion pesos , accessed April 24, 2011
10. ↑ jollibeefoundation.com: Jollibee Food Corporation donates 1 million Pesos for reforestation of the Marikina water catchment area  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English), accessed April 24, 2011  
11. ↑ businessweek.com: Tony Tan Caktiong , accessed April 24, 2011
12. ↑ gmanews.tv: Jollibee founder Caktiong elected to the PLDT supervisory board , accessed on April 23, 2011
13. ↑ people.nfo.ph: Tony Tan Caktiong , accessed April 23, 2011