Indofood sales growth on track: CEO

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The world's largest noodle maker, PT Indofood Sukses Makmur, said on Friday it was optimistic of meeting this year's sales target of about Rp 19 trillion (US$2.28 billion) on the back of an increase in consumer spending.

Indofood chief executive office Eva Riyanti Hutapea said the company's sales would get a boost from an expected rise in consumer spending during Muslim festivities in October and November and the year-end holidays of Christmas and the New Year.

"I am optimistic that we can reach the target. We have increased our production output starting this month by 20 percent due to higher demand," said Eva on the sidelines of the signing of a cooperation agreement with Bank Permata.

Earlier, some analysts expressed doubt about Indofood's ability to reach the sales target given the fact that the publicly listed company's net sales only grew by 6.5 percent to Rp 8.4 trillion in the first semester of this year, from Rp 7.9 trillion a year earlier.

During the first half of this year, Indofood's net profit stood at Rp 308.9 billion, less than the Rp 571.1 billion it booked in the same period last year.

Indofood attributed this decline to lower foreign exchange gains -- down from Rp 314.7 billion during the same period last year to Rp 71.2 billion -- due mostly to the rapid appreciation of the rupiah against the U.S. dollar.

The company earned most of this profit from its instant noodles division, which accounted for about 55 percent of sales. The remaining profit was from flour, edible oil and fats, snacks and baby food.

With 11 brands of instant noodles, the company currently controls 88 percent of the Indonesian instant noodle market.