Chowking to offer Taiwan’s Milkshop bubble tea

JOLLIBEE Foods Corp. (JFC) and its subsidiaries have entered into a licensing deal with Milkshop International Co., Ltd. to sell in local stores popular Taiwanese bubble tea brand Milkshop or Milksha.

“We are thrilled to bring Milksha to Filipino consumers through the stores of our brands in the Philippines,” Tony Tan Caktiong, founder and chairman of JFC, said in a statement on Thursday.

The license agreement will give exclusive rights to JFC, Fresh N’ Famous Foods, Inc., and Mang Inasal Philippines, Inc. to sell and market Milkshop products. However, the brand will be offered first in Chowking stores.

Milksha, also known as Milkshop in Taiwan, first set up shop in Tainan in 2004. It now has over 260 outlets, 235 of which are in Taiwan while 34 others are in Singapore, Australia, China, Canada, and Japan.

The Suntec City Singapore flagship is the brand’s first outlet in Southeast Asia, which opened in 2019.

Milkshop Founder and Chairman Kevin Lin said his team is “proud” to be working with JFC to bring the milktea brand to the Philippines.

“We admire JFC’s passionate commitment to delivering great tasting food at great value for money,” Mr. Lin said.

JFC as of the end of May is operating 3,209 restaurant outlets in the country, under the following brands: Jollibee, Chowking, Greenwich, Red Ribbon, Mang Inasal, Burger King, PHO24, Panda Express.

Overseas, it operates 2,606 stores, which include Yonghe King, Hong Zhuang Yuan, Dunkin’ Donuts, Tim Ho Wan, Jollibee, Red Ribbon, Chowking, Highlands Coffee, PHO24, Hard Rock Cafe, Smashburger, and the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.

The company’s global store network stands at 5,815 stores.

On Friday, shares of Jollibee at the local bourse went up by 0.19% or 40 centavos to close at P210.80 each. — Keren Concepcion G. Valmonte