Indonesia: Matahari Putra Prima to focus on revamp of hypermart stores
“We hope to open the new concept of Hypermart — the generation seven — by the end of this year,” said Danny Kojongian, a director at the listed retailer, in a media gathering on Thursday.
In order to focus on the new concept, Matahari Putra Prima has decided to postpone its Hypermart expansion to next year, he said. Instead, Matahari Putra Prima — which initially planned to launch 20 new Hypermart branches this year — has cut the target in half to 10 new branches. Of that, two new branches — located in Manado, South Sulawesi and Puri Indah, West Jakarta — have started operations this year.
“We don’t want to just open branches on a whim. Our focus right now is to improve the Hypermart chain. The next generation will be completely different,” said Danny, adding that the first look of the Hypermart generation seven concept will be at its Hypermart branch in Lippo North Karawaci.
Matahari Putra Prima currently has 101 Hypermart branches, 30 supermarket Foodmart branches and 95 branches of the health and beauty chain Boston Health & Beauty. Ninety-one percent of Matahari Putra Prima’s revenue comes from Hypermart, while the remaining 8 percent comes from Foodmart and 1 percent from Boston Health & Beauty. Matahari Putra Prima is also planning to focus on its healthy food brand in hopes of catering to growing health awareness in the country.
“We’ve been seeing that people are growing to be more mobile these days. When you don’t have time to eat at a restaurant, you’ll probably just grab a pastry at the closest bakery,” said Danny.
Net income on a pro forma basis — which excludes extraordinary gains and one-off transactions — quadrupled to Rp 117.5 billion ($10 million) in the January-June period from Rp 28.9 billion a year earlier, Danny said. He clarified the Jakarta Globe’s report on Wednesday that stated the company’s net income declined 8.4 percent to Rp 203 billion in the first half.
“We excluded Rp 85.7 [billion] and Rp 192.9 billion extraordinary gain for the six-month period ended June 30, 2014 and 2013 respectively, so we can compare it apple to apple,” Danny said.
He was confident Matahari Putra Prima can achieve its sales rising 15 percent to 20 percent this year, despite opening fewer shops, on the back of robust demand from Indonesia’s middle-income class. The company had Rp 4 trillion in sales in 2013.
Source: thejakartaglobe.com
