Market still dominated by foreign players

Market still dominated by foreign players

When H. Johari Zein, chief executive officer of PT Tiki Jalur
Nugraha Ekakurir (Tiki JNE), started his moving and relocation
company, one of his first orders was moving the household
belongings of a military general.

The distance was not too long as he moved from Kuningan to
Cilodong area, both within Jakarta. One of the valuable pieces in
the assignment was a huge arwana fish, the general's favorite
pet. Johari was aware that moving the fish was no ordinary job as
even the slightest mishandling could result in the death of the
expensive animal.

"So, after placing the fish in a specially prepared water
container, instead of using the delivery trucks, I moved the fish
to the owner's new home in my very own sedan," Johari recalled
one of the numerous unique assignments his company had handled.

For five years now Tiki JNE has been providing moving services
to its mostly foreign customers. Previously the business was
handled by a special division of its affiliate company, Titipan
Kilat, and starting in 2000, after receiving a special freight
forwarding license that allowed the company to handle
consignments weighing over 30 kilograms, Tiki JNE took care of
major orders for moving and relocation.

According to Johari -- born in Medan on April 16, 1954 --
moving and relocation has become an integral part of services
offered by many growing courier companies. "Some local companies
even specialize in such services inspired by the influx of
foreign players in this field," said the man who is also the
chairman of the Indonesian Express Delivery Companies Association
(Asperindo).

Below is an excerpt of an interview with The Jakarta Post
where Johari expressed the future prospects and the prerequisites
to develop this particular business further.

Q: How many Asperindo members are there right now?
A: I can easily remember the Jakarta number, which is 106
companies.

Does each one of them provide moving and relocation services?
No, not all. Our members are divided into three types of
operational zones. The first one operates internationally. These
are the ones that include moving and relocation services in their
portfolio. They often assist foreign experts moving into and out
of the country. The second specializes in domestic operations.
Many in this type have the required transportation facilities and
equipment for such services, including house, office or factory
moving. The third type, currently quite large in number and
rapidly growing, is the city courier, who handle items like
invitations, letters, bank accounts, credit cards and the like.
Despite their huge number, most of them do not cater to moving or
relocation services. Well, you see, moving and relocation are
only part of the entire range of services that a courier or
delivery company can provide for its customers.

Are there local companies in Indonesia now that specialize only
in the moving business?

Well, just a couple. They were inspired by major foreign
players in this field, such as Global, Crown Pacific and so on.
These companies opened up their branches in Indonesia because
their clients in the home country started their businesses here,
so, naturally, they also have to serve them locally. Like in any
business, apart from quality, trust, based on years of a
relationship also plays an important part.

How large is the domestic market?
Due to the low awareness of the locals in the availability of
such services, the domestic market has not grown very much. Our
people are quite different from expatriates who would not go
through the hassle of moving. For them it's just a telephone call
away and a moving company with all its experience and expertise
will take care of everything, from packing and rearranging down
to cleaning up the new place for immediate use. I must say that
most of our people are not that aware regarding such complete
moving services, except for a handful who have lived abroad
either for their work or education.

How would you roughly categorize the market?
There are individuals wishing to move their houses and
businessmen who want to move their employee's residence or their
offices. Finally, there are also companies that intend to move
their factories to another location within the country or even to
another country. They are mostly foreign or multinational
corporations, who, due to their world renowned names, always rely
on the leading and most experienced moving companies. So, clearly
this market almost entirely belongs to the major moving
companies. Admittedly, the local players with comparatively
insufficient experience are not the preferred choice in handling
these giant-sized assignments, like moving the whole factory and
its entire office complex. But in the smaller area, house moving
that is, the number of local companies with quality services is
rapidly growing.

How do you envision the prospect of this business in the future?
I would say it very much depends on the growth of our economy,
which I'm quite certain will improve in the not-too-distant
future. A healthy economy will automatically induce a healthy
mobility in the society. Hence, the need for the services
provided by the related companies will naturally grow and so will
the appreciation towards the companies themselves. I'm optimistic
that opportunities for growth in this business are abundant. We,
in the association, greatly support our members and motivate them
to enhance their skills and knowledge as well as gain experience
at various occasions. Just look at the size of our country, it is
so huge and it is geographically unique, add to it the newly
introduced element of regional autonomy, all of which create
limitless potential for this kind of business.

What are the superior features of local companies in comparison
to foreign ones?

Moving is not always to big cities, like Jakarta. In moving to
project sites in the regions or in remote areas, I think, local
companies surpass their foreign counterparts, which, in my
opinion, are not so accustomed to that type of assignment. In
this sector certain local players excel in their services.

What would you suggest to further develop this business?

With the kind of geography we have, even a local company should
have a widespread network, meaning branches in major cities or at
least in the capital cities of every province so that it can
truly provide moving and relocation services to every area in the
country. Serving just a couple of big cities, say like Jakarta,
Bandung and the like would not be sufficient. Local companies
must also consider providing services outside Indonesia to cater
to foreign corporations and expatriates, hence they must
establish some kind of cooperation or network with agents in
foreign countries. Human resources is another vital element. We
must have expert staff who are able to, among other things,
conduct reliable surveys and can measure as well as detect the
level of difficulty of each and every moving assignment and of
course, can provide the relevant solutions. -- Ari Darmawan