Ace Hardware Indonesia

Retail

MARKET CAP: RP 22.72 TN

NET INCOME: RP 780.7 BN

One of the industries heavily affected by the weakening of the rupiah exchange rate is retail. The weakening caused slow growth, from 10% to 7% last year. Surprisingly, last year, Ace Hardware Indonesia successfully posted a 20% growth of net sales, far beyond the industry’s growth. “It is true that our business heavily depends on imported goods. But, as long as the rupiah exchange rate to the dollar is still below 15,000, we still can manage,” says Kuncoro Wibowo, president commissioner of Ace Hardware Indonesia and founder of Kawan Lama Group, 62.

Ace Hardware Indonesia is a retail company primarily engaged in home improvement and lifestyle products, which include household hardware, home appliances to building materials. Their lifestyle product offers automotive accessories, furniture, housewares, and sporting goods to pet supplies. Its subsidiary, PT Toys Game Indonesia, retails toys under the name Toys Kingdom. Ace operates 154 stores in major cities in Indonesia such as Jakarta, Semarang, Medan, Balikpapan, and Makassar.

According to NH Korindo Sekuritas Indonesia’s research, Ace’s strong performance last year was due to the increasing number of its outlets, as well as marketing and merchandising strategy. It predicts Ace’s net sales will go up from Rp5.9 trillion to Rp 6.8 trillion by the end of 2018, while its net income is expected to grow by 15.8% to Rp901 billion this year. On the other hand, it predicts Ace’s gross margin will go a bit down to under 1%.