Hero to renovate its supermarket

An executive of Hero business group, Anton Lukmanto, said yesterday that the company needs five or six months to renovate its fire-razed supermarket on Jl. Mampang Prapatan, South Jakarta.

The one-story supermarket, which was one of 38 Hero outlets supermarkets in the greater Jakarta area, went up in flames in the wee hours of the morning, Wednesday.

Anton estimated that the company suffered losses of Rp 3.4 billion (US$1.6 million).

"We have decided to employ some 150 employees of the supermarket at five other Hero retail outlets in the city," he said, referring to the group's supermarkets in Kalibata Mall (East Jakarta), Jl. Gatot Subroto (Central Jakarta), Kemang Village, Jl. Barito and Blok M Plaza, all in South Jakarta.

He said that police are still investigating the cause of the fire.(09)