22 Hero outlets damaged, looted in riots
22 Hero outlets damaged, looted in riots
JAKARTA (JP): At least 22 of PT Hero Supermarket's 50 retail
outlets in the capital and nearby towns were damaged during the
recent riots, an official of the retail chain said yesterday.
The company's corporate secretary, Maurice Pawadi, told The
Jakarta Post that the company was still calculating its losses.
"We have not finished calculating the total loss but it will
be hundreds of billions of rupiah," he said.
Following the death of four Trisakti University students on
May 12, thousands of angry rioters vandalized shops and buildings
the following two days, with goods looted from the damaged or
destroyed properties.
As a result, Jakarta was paralyzed and business activities
ground to a virtual halt.
Kontan business tabloid estimated that Hero might have
suffered a financial loss as high as Rp 150 billion (US$15
million) from Jakarta's worst rioting in decades.
Hero, one of the country's largest supermarket chains, has a
total of 70 outlets operating across the country with 50 outlets
operating in the greater Jakarta area.
Maurice said yesterday that of the 22 affected outlets,
some only had minor damage while others suffered extensive damage
or were totally gutted by fire.
"We do not have the exact number of outlets that were burned
and looted but hopefully we can announce it to the public by the
end of this week," he said.
Chairman of the Indonesian Retail Association (Aprindo),
Steven Sondakh, who is also a director of Hero, said from
Singapore yesterday that association members might have lost over
Rp 1 trillion from the two-day looting and rioting spree.
Hero and other leading retail chains like Matahari Department
Stores and Ramayana are members of the association.
"The members of Aprindo are likely to face a total loss of
over Rp 1 trillion," he said.
PT Matahari Putra Prima, the owner of Matahari Department
Stores, and PT Ramayana Lestari Sentosa, the owner of Ramayana,
were not available for comment yesterday.
Matahari's communication official, Rinasanty H. Arya, only
said that the company was still calculating its losses.
"We are still working on it," she said.
But Kontan reported that Matahari may have suffered losses
totaling Rp 200 billion due to the riots in which 14 of its
outlets were either burned or looted.
Ramayana Lestari Sentosa is estimated to have sustained a
total loss of Rp 200 billion from its 13 stores which were burned
and 11 looted outlets.
Most of the companies have already reported to the Jakarta
Stock Exchange (JSX) management and Capital Market Supervisory
Agency (Bapepam) on the impact of the riots and looting.
JSX director Felia Salim said some of the listed companies,
including Matahari, Hero and Ramayana, had reported they were
affected by the riots.
"But we have not received any reports on financial losses
yet," she said. (aly)