Parkson goes to Indonesia

Singapore-listed Parkson Retail Asia (PRA) will open its first department store in Jakarta, Indonesia, in September 2013.

The decision is in line with the group’s plan to pursue a dual-brand strategy in Indonesia and signals Parkson’s confidence in Indonesia’s booming retail industry.

“It has always been part of our long-term strategy to introduce the Parkson brand to Indonesia where domestic consumption is on the rise and where there is a growing upper class. We are gearing up to capture the potential of Indonesia’s dramatic growth story over the next few years” said Datuk Alfred Cheng, MD and executive director of PRA.

Targeted at the upper income segment of the market, the first Parkson store will be located in The St. Moritz in the Puri Central Business District, West Jakarta. Parkson will occupy the ground, upper ground and first floors, spanning a total of 17,101 sqm of retail space.

The St. Moritz is a 35 hectare premium mixed-used development built by Lippo Group with the vision to be a hub for entertainment, business, healthcare and education. The mall is also situated at the intersection of two major highways providing easy accessibility and extending the primary catchment areas to the north, and south-east areas of Greater Jakarta.

The Parkson store will complement PRA’s existing department store brand, Centro, which has already developed an identity in the Indonesian retail market in its eight years of operations. This enables the company to pursue a dual-brand strategy in Indonesia with Parkson targeting the upper-middle to upper income segment and Centro targeting the middle-income segment.

PRA will continue to expand the network of Centro to at least 12 to 13 cities across Indonesia while Parkson department stores will be concentrated in the first tier cities such as Jakarta, Medan and Surabaya.

“The middle class population in Indonesia, which is our primary target customer segment, is fast expanding with rising disposable incomes. Hence this gives us the confidence that we can maintain our growth momentum riding on the uptrend of the retail market,” said Cheng.

The group will continue to pursue its strategy to expand its store network across countries where there is continued expansion or potential for expansion of the middle class income segment of the population, and it targets to open a further seven new stores next year across Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia.

“We are constantly on the lookout for new opportunities in emerging markets and because of our solid brand name and expansive store network in the region, we are well poised to take advantage of them,” said Cheng.

As at March 31, Parkson Retail Asia Limited operated 53 stores including one supermarket in Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. Established in 1987, Parkson department store operates a business model through a blend of concessionaires, anchor tenants and a customised product mix. 

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