Crisis profits local export food firms

YOGYAKARTA (JP): The currency crisis, which has been affecting the country since early July, has brought in a windfall of profit to export-oriented food companies, a prominent Indonesian businessman has said.

Speaking at a seminar attended by members of the Association of Indonesian Managers Thursday night, Bob Sadino revealed that his business was relatively unaffected by the crisis.

The monetary crisis, triggered by the de facto devaluation of the Thai baht in early July, has caused a drop in the value of the rupiah by nearly 35 percent against the U.S. dollar. The rupiah's sharp depreciation makes Indonesian products cheaper overseas.

"We've been exporting two to three containers of vegetables to Japan every week," Bob said, adding that his agribusiness company, Kem Farm, had been receiving three times more orders than it could handle.

The company's export volume, according to Sadino, excludes about 50 to 60 tons of products it supplies to Jakarta customers every day.

Bob, who began his business selling chicken eggs door to door in the early 1970s, now has three companies: Kem Chick's Supermarket, Kem Food and Kem Farm.

Kem Chick's is located in the elite area of Kemang, South Jakarta. Bob claimed his supermarket had 3,000 regular customers each day, 94 percent of which were foreigners.

"There are about 18,000 different products sold there," Bob said.

Kem Food, located in Pulo Gadung Industrial Estate, East Jakarta, produced five tons of sausage and other processed meat products a day. "I used to produce only two to three kilograms of sausage a day when I started the business years ago," he recalled.

Bob employed no less than 1,600 employees. Many of them, he said, were homeless. Yet some of them were holding important positions at his companies.

"An educational background is important, but the most important thing is their motivation to work for us," Bob said, referring to how he recruits employees.

Sharing his business experience with fellow managers, Bob, who repeatedly refused to be called a successful businessman, said there were four important factors in starting a business. They were: willingness to do the business, commitment, courage to take chances and no whining.

"I never planned to be what I am. What I have at present is simply nothing but a result of what I wanted to do in the past," Bob said. (swa)