Makro to launch Internet-based system

JAKARTA: PT Makro Indonesia, a retail wholesaler, said Wednesday it will launch next Monday an Internet-based business- to-business system connecting the company with suppliers to increase inventory efficiency.

The online system will link Makro with its 1,700 suppliers, and will help them improve procurement and payment logistics to increase efficiency in the supply chain, said Makro Indonesia's president director Simon Collins.

The operation of the online system is part of the company's strategy to boost business in the country, said Collins.

Companies that do well in countries with low gross domestic product growth but high inflation, such as Indonesia, are those with the lowest operating costs, he said.

After posting 20 percent annual sales growth in the last two years, Collins expects Makro Indonesia's sales growth to slow to slightly below 20 percent this year.

Makro Asia, a 100 percent-owned unit of the Netherlands' SHV Holdings, owns over an 80 percent stake in Makro Indonesia, one of the country's leading, modern retail companies. -- Dow Jones