Jakarta. Matahari Putra Prima, one of Indonesia's largest retailers, aims to increase its sales in the digital platform to 10 to 15 percent of total sales from currently at between 5 and 6 percent, as part of its strategy to survive the Covid-19 pandemic, Danny Kojongian, the company's corporate secretary and director said on Friday. 

To achieve the target, Matahari Putra Prima would strengthen collaboration with marketplace providers. Currently, 104 of the company's outlets, including Hypermart, Foodmart Supermarket, Hyfresh Supermarket, Primo Supermarket, Boston Health and Beauty, and FMX, have an online shopping service. 

The company has partnered with Grab Indonesia's GrabMart service, and Shopee the collaboration has shown encouraging results. 

GrabMart's partnership now covers 90 Matahari Putra Prima's outlets, up from just 27 when the partnership began in July and attracting more than 750 transactions per day. Meanwhile, Shopee now covers 30 outlets, up from 23 last month. 

The online service was such as success that the company is now "in the discussion stage to join other online platform operators," Danny during a virtual public expose meeting with shareholders and media on Friday.

Initially, Matahari Putra Prima offered digital shopping services through its in-house app Hypermart Online. This year, the company launched Whatsapp Talk & Shop, online shopping services using the messaging app. Today, 136 Matahari Putra Prima's outlets nationwide provide the service.

The company began with 20 outlets for providing express delivery service in March, which now has expanded to 52 outlets. The Park & Pickup service designed to accommodate large items' purchase is also available in selected outlets, Danny said. 

Danny said the company had also made between 4,300 and 7,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs) available today to ensure the fast distribution of goods to customers that made their purchase only. In March, the company started the service with only 2,000 SKUs. 

"We also offer next day delivery services that are already present at 95 outlets with 7,000 SKUs, including non-food products and fresh products," Danny said.

During the pandemic, Matahari Putra Prima decided not to open new outlets and closed several outlets, including one in Bali, to reduce losses. 

Matahari Putra Prima director Herry Senjaya said that the company would reopen these outlets after the pandemic ends because the closure was temporary. 

"If retail and economic conditions return to favorable conditions, the company will open these outlets by the end of this year," he said.

As of June 2020, Matahari Putra Prima operates 100 Hypermart outlets, 26 Foodmart outlets, and 10 Hyfresh outlets. This supermarket group contributes 96 percent of the company's total sales. 

Meanwhile, in the wholesale format, the company operates 1 SmartClub, which contributes 2 percent of sales. Meanwhile, in the department store category, the company has 64 Boston outlets and 14 FMX outlets, which also account for 2 percent of sales. 

In 2021, the company plans to establish 16 Hyfresh outlets with a budget of Rp 80 billion ($5.4 million). Hyfresh has a stand-alone concept, which is usually built-in residential locations. This outlet targets middle to upper segment consumers.

Hyfresh can be an efficient store chain because it is only 500-1,000 square meters in size. For comparison, the Hypermart area ranged from 2,500-6,000 square meters, while the Foodmart area was around 1,500-2,000 square meters, Danny said. 

New Independent Commissioner 

Matahari Putra Prima's extraordinary general meeting of shareholders on Thursday appointed Dicky Setiadi Moechtar as a new independent commissioner to replace one commissioner who resigned last August.

Thus, the current composition of the company's board of commissioners is Independent President Commissioner John Bellis, Independent Commissioner Dicky Setiadi Moechtar (new member), Commissioner John Riady, Commissioner Fendi Santoso, and Commissioner Rudy Ramawy.

Meanwhile, there has been no change in the company's board of directors, namely President Director Adrian Suherman, Director Herry Senjaya, Director Andre Rumantir, and Director Johanes Jany. Elliot Dickson has continued to operate as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) since 2018.