Healthy Retailer

The retail business is challenging. Yet, Duta Intidaya, better known as Watsons Indonesia, foresees healthy growth ahead.

- Ulisari Eslita

Health and beauty is one of the sectors that have been growing lately within the retail industry. One of the main reasons for this growth is innovation, as the health and beauty sector has adapted well to change. Innovation in this case is not just talking about advances in creating and distributing new products, but also how they are displayed and sold. This is a success factor for which the most innovative retailers like Watsons Indonesia take responsibility. Over the past three years, Watsons Indonesia net sales have been growing by at least 130% after a series of corporate turnarounds. Under the leadership of Lilis Mulyawati, 52, Watsons Indonesia has been transformed from a lossmaking company. In 2017, Watsons Indonesia booked losses of Rp 3.9 billion, but last year it reserved Rp 5.2 billion in net profits.

“When I first joined Watsons Indonesia back in 2016, for 11 years this company only had 46 outlets. Today, it has 140 outlets all over Indonesia and will add 40 more outlets next year,” says Lilis, CEO of PT Duta Intidaya, the company that holds the exclusive rights to open and operate Watsons outlets in Indonesia.

Watsons is the largest health care and beauty care chain store in Asia. It is a subsidiary of and the flagship health and beauty brand of the A.S. Watson Group, majority-owned by CK Hutchison Holdings. Duta Intidaya was established in 2005 and opened the first Watsons store a year later in Pondok Indah Mall, a premium mall in South Jakarta. However, it performed poorly and the company only began to make a profit in 2018. In 2016, Duta Intidaya went for an IPO and sold 23% of its shares for Rp 78 billion.