Jollibee’s Compose Coffee draws long lines in Taiwan, eyes Philippine launch

Compose Coffee’s first Taiwan store gave Jollibee Group exactly the kind of early signal it wanted: customers were lining up as early as 8 a.m., and peak waits stretched to two hours. That kind of start matters because Taiwan is not just an overseas debut, it is the first real test of whether Jollibee can turn a South Korean value coffee brand into a regional growth engine.

Jollibee used its April 16 trading update to say the Taiwan launch had been strong and that the Philippines launch was still planned for 2026. The company had already said in February that Fresh N’ Famous Foods signed a master franchise agreement to bring Compose Coffee to the Philippines, making Taiwan a useful proving ground before the brand lands in a market where Jollibee already has a much deeper consumer base.

The early response in Taipei supports the pitch Jollibee has been making since it agreed in 2024 to acquire a 70% stake in Compose Coffee for about US$340 million. Richard C.W. Shin, Jollibee Group International CEO, said the company was encouraged by the early response in Taiwan, and Jollibee said the debut reinforced Compose Coffee’s position as a scalable growth platform. The company has also described the brand as having “unlimited potential” to become a leading global brand.

That confidence is not coming from a blank slate. Compose Coffee was founded in Busan in 2014, runs on a 100% franchised model, and had more than 2,600 stores in South Korea as of June 2024. Jollibee has said its coffee-and-tea segment now spans more than 5,000 stores globally, and Compose Coffee contributed 22.6% of the segment’s same-store sales growth in 2025. For Jollibee, that makes coffee less of a side bet and more of a serious piece of the company’s international growth story.

The real question is whether Taiwan’s response reflects broad exportability or just a strong opening-day crowd. Long lines are a good headline, but coffee chains live or die on repeat traffic, pricing discipline, and whether the brand feels local enough to keep moving units after the first rush fades. Launching in Taiwan before the Philippines gives Jollibee a cross-border test bed for all of that.

If Compose Coffee can turn this kind of start into sustained traffic, it will strengthen the case that Korean coffee formats can travel across Asian markets without losing their edge. If not, the Taiwan debut will still have done its job by showing where the model needs work before Jollibee pushes harder in the Philippines and beyond.