Burger chain operator Mos Food Services Inc. will open its first Philippines outlet by the end of March 2020, in partnership with a local dining chain.
The company plans to establish Mos Burger Philippines Inc. this year alongside the Philippines' Tokyo Coffee Holdings Co., targeting 50 stores by the end of the 2027 business year, Hubert Young, president of Tokyo Coffee, said in an interview Monday.
Tokyo Coffee, which operates restaurants offering Japanese food in the Philippines, is a business arm of major feed and flour-maker General Milling Corp.
Tokyo Coffee will own 65 percent of the joint venture and Mos Food 35 percent. The two companies aim to cash in on the growing middle class in the Philippines.
Mos Food's entry in the Southeast Asian country is its first foray into a foreign market in seven years, following South Korea in 2012, it said.
"They feel that the opportunity to enter and propagate a Japanese burger chain is timely for the Philippines," Young said.
Foreign fast-food chain giants such as McDonald's Corp. and Burger King Corp. have been struggling in recent years to compete with local rival Jollibee.
"I don't think we would want to ... compete with any of them" because Mos Burger is different, as it uses a "cook-to-order" method and offers "healthy, fresh" food, Young said.
It operated 1,308 stores at home and 375 outlets in eight foreign markets as of the end of last month, according to its website.