September 04, 2011
Entrepreneurs had good reason to celebrate the recent holiday, with figures showing that sales at small and medium enterprises zoomed up 250 percent during Ramadan.
Data from the Indonesian Young Entrepreneurs Association (Hipmi) showed that during the fasting month, SMEs posted average sales between Rp 800 million and Rp 1 billion ($94,000 to $117,000) each.
“Usually, their average sales are about Rp 400 million a month,” Harry Warganegara, head of Hipmi’s trade department, told the Jakarta Globe on Sunday.
By comparison, he said, last year’s Ramadan boosted sales by only 150 percent.
Harry attributed the turbocharged sales leap to a significant increase in consumers’ purchasing power.
“You can see it clearly in the increase in Idul Fitri travelers this year. They won’t take the costly trip if they don’t have money,” he said.
The travel surge meant small businesses in the automotive services sector experienced substantial increases in revenue. The Ministry of Transportation estimated that 2.5 million people traveled home by motorcycle and another 1.6 million by car during this year’s mudik.
“Turnover of SMEs servicing motorcycles, for instance, soared by more than 100 percent [compared to a week before Idul Fitri],” he said, adding that the trend was likely to continue during the next few weeks as travelers have their vehicles checked again.
According to a study released last week by Islamic social welfare group Dompet Dhuafa, Indonesians on average spend 11 percent more than their monthly income during mudik.
This year, travelers spent an estimated Rp 95 trillion during mudik, 18 percent more than last year. The study also found that more than a third of the money went to SMEs.
That helps explain the rise in sales at bakeries such as Bandung-based Amanda Brownies — where sales jumped 26 percent to 4.8 billion — and J&C Cookies, which tripled its revenue to Rp 15 billion last month.
During Ramadan, many Indonesians spend more than usual on food and travel, and also purchase new clothes. Plaza Parahyangan, a group of 300 clothing stores, raked in Rp 400 million per store during the fasting month, nearly double their usual monthly revenue.
With the boost in sales, Harry said the more than 10,000 SMEs that constitute Hipmi’s membership could potentially post total sales of Rp 90 trillion this year, compared to Rp 70 trillion last year.
“It could be much higher if the government provided free-of-charge legalization for small businesses such as street vendors,” he said.
(x the JG)
zo 4 sep 2011 - 21:33