Jollibee Foods Corp (JFC) has closed its restaurant chain 12 Hotpot in Mainland China.

The 16 Shanghai-area stores were shut down by its subsidiary, 12 Hotpot (Shanghai) Food and Beverage Management, a 48 per cent-owned JV with WJ Investments.

It was formed in August 2012 when JFC’s wholly owned subsidiaries Jollibee Worldwide and Golden Plate entered into an agreement with Hoppime, a subsidiary of Wowprime Corp of Taiwan and some of its key executives. The idea was to establish WJ Investments to own and run 12 Hotpot in China, Hong Kong and Macau.

With the discontinuation of the mainland business, 12 Hotpot (Shanghai) then the JV will be liquidated.

“JFC will focus on building its larger and fast-growing businesses in China and other parts of the world,” says the company.

At the end of September, JFC had 3644 stores in its worldwide network. It also has a 40 per cent interest in Smashburger with 355 outlets, mostly in the US. In China its businesses include Yonghe King (305 stores), Hong Zhuang Yuan (44) and Dunkin’ Donuts (18).

The company has also been running Happy Bee Foods Processing to supply products to its restaurants.

In the Philippines, JFC has the largest foodservice network with 2756 restaurant, namely Jollibee (1023 outlets), Chowking (510), Mang Inasal (471), Red Ribbon (411), Greenwich (262) and Burger King (seven).

JFC’s overseas stores include Highlands Coffee (219 including 193 in Vietnam and 26 in the Philippines), Jollibee (186 including 93 in Vietnam, five in Singapore and four in Hong Kong), Pho 24 (31 including 15 in Vietnam, 14 in Indonesia and one in Korea), and Hard Rock Cafe (8 with three each in Hong Kong and Macau, and two in Vietnam).