Unilever Flags Indonesian Expansion
Aloysius Unditu. The Jakarta Globe, Jakarta - 20/07/2011
Consumer products maker Unilever Indonesia is spending almost Rp 4 trillion ($470 million) in 18 months to build a manufacturing plant in Surabaya and has plans to construct another facility in a move to boost sales in Southeast Asia’s largest economy.
The expenditure is part of Unilever’s 350-million euro ($500 million) investment plan for 2010-2012, said Sancoyo Antarikso, corporate secretary of Unilever in Jakarta.
Unilever is building a plant in Rungkut in Surabaya.
“We spent Rp 3.5 trillion in 2010 and Rp 400 billion in the first half of this year’’ Sancoyo said.
“We want to boost our production.”
It will give Unilever two plants, in West Java and East Java. The Surabaya facility will produce soap, and a Cikarang facility makes skin-care products for the Pond’s and Citra brands.
The compound annual growth rate of the company’s sales — a measure of investment over a period — was 14 percent in the last 10 years, Sancoyo said, declining to disclose details.
Unilever sales rose 8 percent to Rp 19.7 trillion in 2010 from a year earlier, while its net income increased 11 percent to Rp 3.38 trillion. Sancoyo declined to give a sales forecast for this year.