MANILA - Jollibee recently opened a new store in Abu Dhabi, which is its 48th branch in the Middle East, the restaurant chain said on Monday.

The fast-food giant said that its newest store in the capital of the United Arab Emirates opened to long lines of customers.

The restaurant is located on Hamdan Street, one of the busiest streets in Abu Dhabi, Jollibee said.

"Over 2,000 pieces of the world-famous Chickenjoy were sold on opening day, and its first three days outperformed sales targets by over 40 percent," the company said.

The first customer was an Arab mother who was eager to try Jollibee for the first time along with her two kids who came along with her for the opening, Jollibee said.

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“While we continue to have the support of Filipinos in the Middle East, we are also increasingly seeing more locals and migrants of other nationalities coming to our stores, and this shows that we are gaining traction amongst the mainstream market thus further increasing our customer base," said Dennis Flores, President of Jollibee Foods Corporation for Europe, Middle East, Asia, and Australia.

Jollibee has stores in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman. Jollibee currently has over 1,400 stores across the globe, with more stores scheduled to open this year.

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