High school graduate Maryanto pedals to foreign market

High school graduate Maryanto pedals to foreign market

Kanis Dursin, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

Forty-five-year-old Maryanto smiled broadly as he welcomed
visitors coming to take a look at miniature bicycles and pedicabs
on display at his house-cum-workshop on the outskirts of
Yogyakarta.

"We are now producing a total of 50 bicycles and rickshaws a
week," said senior high school graduate Maryanto, proudly showing
a selection of his miniatures of antique bicycles and pedicabs to
his curious guests.

Up until one-and-a-half years ago, Maryanto exclusively
produced brass figurines, with monthly total sales ranging from
Rp 5 million (US$560) to Rp 10 million, and monthly net profit
averaging Rp 2 million.

Now, however, Maryanto, the father of two sons and one
daughter, has started producing the transport miniatures,
boosting his monthly sales to around Rp 20 million during the low
season and some Rp 30 million during the high season --- Idul
Fitri, Christmas and New Year's holidays.

His net profit has also increased to between Rp 5 million and
Rp 6 million per month.

"Thank God we got a micro credit from Bank Mandiri," said
Maryanto, one of hundreds of recipients of state-owned Bank
Mandiri's micro credits.

According to Wahyudin, public relations manager of Mandiri
Yogyakarta, the publicly listed bank also offers loans to small-
scale business people involved in wood carving, furniture and
batik painting, as well as handicrafts in Yogyakarta.

The loans carry various low-interest rates. Loans worth Rp 10
million or below have interest rates of 6 percent; loans between
Rp 10 million and Rp 30 million, 8 percent; and loans worth
between Rp 30 million and Rp 50 million, 10 percent.

"Bank Mandiri usually gives training on financial accounting
to loan recipients and monitors their business activities,"
Wahyudin said.

In 2004, Maryanto and his junior high school graduate wife,
Tukirah, participated in a handicraft exhibition at the
Yogyakarta Exhibition Center selling brass figurines.

"Bank Mandiri approached us and offered us a loan," Maryanto
told The Jakarta Post recently.

While he and his wife showed great eagerness to obtain the
much-needed working capital, Bank Mandiri, said Maryanto, did not
disburse the loan until one-and-a-half years ago.

"We had to surrender a land certificate as collateral," he
said.

The long wait proved to be worthwhile for Maryanto. Soon after
he secured the Rp 10 million loan from Bank Mandiri in early
2003, Maryanto expanded his business, increasing the number of
employees to six, and expanding his product line.

His profit also continued to swell as bulk orders came in from
souvenir shops, department stores and galleries -- both in
Yogyakarta and Jakarta. The process has not been problem-free
though. According to Tukirah, customers often approach him with
their own designs. "Many customers bring their own designs along,
but we cannot always accommodate them," he said.

However, Bank Mandiri has helped Maryanto and his wife make
master designs of orders placed by their customers.

Tukirah said that their success had inspired others to enter
into the same business. "We are facing even stiffer competition,
but now we have already prepared our own designs, just in case,"
she said.

The strong demand for bicycle and pedicab miniatures enabled
Maryanto to repay the loan in full, on time. "I was able to repay
the loan in one year," he said.

Straight after repaying the loan more than six months ago,
Maryanto and Tukirah took out another loan worth Rp 20 million
from Bank Mandiri.

"We pledged to repay the loan in three years," said Maryanto,
adding that he had also increased the number of employees to
nine.

The couple are now wondering how to market their products
further afield. "I want to learn how to market our products
overseas," Maryanto said.

However, Mandiri, which claims to be the country's biggest
bank in terms of assets and credit volume, can only provide funds
to businesspeople of small enterprises, but not marketing
expertise.

Four months ago, Maryanto joined a group of businesspeople at
an exhibition in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. During the exhibition,
Maryanto inked an agreement with a Malaysian businessman, under
which the latter would act as the sole agent of his products in
the neighboring country.

Since then, Maryanto has been sending 100 bicycles worth Rp
6.5 million monthly to Malaysia, and according to his Malaysian
partner, sales of the little bicycles have increased steadily.

Both Maryanto and Tukirah hope that, through their business,
their children can escape the "abject poverty" that deprived
their parents of a higher education.

"We want our children to continue with their studies wherever
they want to. We are ready to support them," Tukirah said.

However, their eldest son, twenty-one, shows little interest
in going to university. A senior high school graduate, he is now
helping his parents run their business.