First Mickey & Friends outlets open in Jakarta

JAKARTA (JP): The world's first two Mickey & Friends outlets opened in Sogo department stores in Jakarta over the weekend.

The first one was opened in Sogo in Plaza Indonesia, Central Jakarta, Saturday and the second in Sogo in Kelapa Gading Mall, North Jakarta, yesterday.

Mickey & Friends is the latest retail concept from the Walt Disney Company. In its operation in Indonesia, the company has appointed private company PT Bintang Tunggal Gemilang, a subsidiary of Gajah Tunggal Group, as sole licensee of Mickey & Friends in Indonesia.

The outlets offer about 800 different items of Disney products in the form of clothes, stationery, toys, accessories and souvenirs.

"The goods offered at the outlets are all authentic Disney products made both domestically and internationally," said Sutrisno, managing director of Bintang Tunggal, which is also the first license holder of Mickey & Friends in the world.

Besides selling Disney dolls, such as Winnie The Pooh, 101 Dalmatians and Hercules, Mickey & Friends outlets will bring the "real" Disney world to customers through visual merchandising, comic-strip theme store design and other entertainment such as Disney films.

"We chose to open the first chain here in Indonesia due to its rapid economic growth and its potential market," the president of Walt Disney Company for Asia, John Feenie, said after opening the Sogo Central Jakarta outlet.

Jacques Levy, vice president and general manager of Mickey & Friends International, said that Mickey & Friends would become a new brand identity of Disney.

"However, Mickey & Friends will still follow the Disney discipline of creating an exciting and vivid retail environment. It will also adopt the Disney style of guest service program," said Levy.

Also present at the weekend openings were three famous Disney's characters: Mickey Mouse, Minnie and Donald Duck who came directly from the United States.

After the opening, parents took their children to shake hands and have their pictures taken with the characters.

A Mickey & Friends store will also be opened by the end of this year in Lippo Supermal, Karawaci in Tangerang. Another store will be opened in Mal Taman Anggrek, West Jakarta, next year.

"After operating for a year, we plan to open another store in Tunjungan Plaza in the East Java capital of Surabaya," said Joni Sutanto, one of Bintang Tunggal's directors.

He said the opening of more stores in other cities was also planned, such as in Bandung in West Java and Medan in North Sumatra.

After Indonesia, Mickey & Friends chain stores will be opened in Poland. The Disney Store, Mickey & Friends' parent company, has opened more than 650 stores in 14 countries since its founding 10 years ago. (ste)