Mang Inasal will be majority owned by Jollibee

The financial muscle and influence of Jollibee never ceases to amaze me.  As of this posting, I just went through a news article stating that Jollibee Foods Corporation  will buy 70% of chicken barbecue fast food chain Mang Inasal for 3 billion pesos.  Injap Investments of Mr Edgar Sia II will still retain 30%.  The offer was hard to resist according to news reports that is why the Sia's took it despite their intentions of going public this year.

My two cents worth: if you methodologically opened a Mang Inasal beside a Jollibee at every instance then you have taken JFC's attention.  If you've made Jollibee try to make a chicken barbecue variant in their menu then you are seen as a threat.  I think that in this instance JFC blinked, the logical solution for JFC is to acquire you.  Well played, Mang Inasal.

Anyway, what does this mean for Jollibee and Mang Inasal then?  My hunch is that the Jollibee chicken barbecue would be gone soon (and good riddance too!)  Mang Inasal would probably have a mascot (haha!)  We could probably see more Mang Inasal advertisements and product offerings.  A kiddie meal perhaps, where the toy is a bow and you can use the bamboo skewers as an arrow.  Or, they can get Bamboo as an endorser so that he can sing the song "Hinahanap Hanap Kita" again while holding bamboo skewers.  (This is the song used in the Mark Bautista commercial, this was originally sang by Rivermaya when Bamboo was still the lead vocalist.)  

But seriously, judging from the model they have used when they acquired other units like Greenwich, Chowking, Delifrance (which they sold again) and Red Ribbon they never really changed these companies and let them grow on their own.  Most probably that would be the same for the acquisition of Mang Inasal.  If Mang Inasal would improve their services I would probably change my stance on Mang Inasal then http://execlunch.blogspot.com/2010/09/repost-of-old-fb-rant.html.  

I tip my hat off to Mr Tony Tan Caktiong for another marvelous business decision.  Jollibee's influence and financial prowess never really ceases to amaze me.