The Fast-Food Chain Following Its Customers Around the World

By Tam Goldsmith

Jollibee is proving that people often create markets before brands do.

Jollibee's Texas Ambition Shows Why People, Not Places, Drive Franchise Growth

Jollibee believes Texas could support as many as 150 restaurants. The confidence behind that target says as much about migration and community as it does about restaurant economics.

International franchise expansion is often presented as a process driven by market research. Companies analyse population growth, household income, consumer spending, and competitive intensity before deciding where to invest. Those factors remain important, but they do not always explain why certain brands succeed in markets that initially appear crowded or highly competitive.

Jollibee's expansion across the United States illustrates this well. The Philippines-based restaurant chain has said Texas alone could support around 150 locations. At first glance, that seems ambitious given the state's highly competitive quick-service restaurant market, where established global brands already compete aggressively for customers, labour, and prime real estate.

The confidence behind that target, however, is rooted in something that existed long before Jollibee opened its first restaurant in many of these communities. The company is following people who already know its brand rather than introducing itself to an entirely unfamiliar market.

Communities Often Create the Market First

For decades, millions of Filipinos have settled across the United States, building families, businesses, and communities in cities with strong economic opportunities. Along with them came the food, traditions, and brands that formed part of everyday life back home.

That matters because consumer familiarity significantly reduces one of the biggest challenges facing any expanding franchise: earning trust. In many Texas communities, Jollibee is not introducing a new concept to its first customers. Many already know the menu, understand the brand, and actively want it nearby.

Instead of creating demand from scratch, the company is responding to demand that already exists.

This is an important distinction. While traditional expansion models often focus on identifying attractive markets, diaspora communities frequently establish those opportunities years before the first location opens.

Migration Is Becoming a Growth Indicator

The franchise industry has traditionally relied on demographic reports, income statistics, and population forecasts to guide development decisions. Those remain valuable tools, but migration patterns deserve far more attention than they often receive.

As people relocate for work, education, or family opportunities, they bring established purchasing habits with them. They seek out familiar products, trusted brands, and businesses that reflect their culture and experiences. Over time, those communities become large enough to support concepts that might once have been considered too specialised or geographically limited.

For franchisors, this creates an additional layer of market intelligence. Understanding where communities are growing can sometimes provide earlier signals of opportunity than conventional market analysis alone.

From Community Favourite to Mainstream Brand

One of the misconceptions surrounding brands like Jollibee is that they remain dependent on their original customer base indefinitely. Restaurant history suggests otherwise.

Many successful restaurant chains first established themselves within specific cultural communities before gradually attracting a broader audience. As more consumers discover the brand, word-of-mouth expands beyond the original community and customer bases become increasingly diverse.

Jollibee appears to be following a similar path. While Filipino consumers remain central to its success, the brand has steadily attracted customers with no cultural connection to the Philippines who simply enjoy its food and distinctive offering. Once that transition begins, growth can accelerate well beyond the size of the original community.

A Different Way to Think About International Franchising

Jollibee's strategy offers an important lesson for franchisors considering international expansion. Successful growth is not always about convincing consumers to embrace something unfamiliar. In many cases, the opportunity already exists because communities have carried their preferences with them long before the brand arrives.

Following those communities reduces market risk, creates an established customer base from day one, and provides a foundation from which broader consumer adoption can grow.

The company's confidence in Texas is therefore about more than adding restaurants. It reflects an understanding that migration shapes markets in ways traditional development models do not always recognise. Brands that learn to follow people, rather than simply chase population growth, may discover expansion opportunities that competitors overlook.

What We Can Learn From This

Jollibee's expansion strategy demonstrates that migration patterns can be as valuable as traditional market research when identifying franchise opportunities. Franchisors should pay closer attention to growing diaspora communities, as they often create demand long before a brand enters the market. As global mobility continues to reshape cities around the world, understanding where people are building new lives could become one of the most important tools in franchise development.