New outlet for office needs opens

JAKARTA (JP): While many businesses are struggling to stay alive during the current economic hardship, PT Global Lintas Media, a subsidiary of giant publishing company Grup Gramedia, opened its first U.S.-franchising outlet for office needs here Monday.

Located at Mall Ambasador on Jl. Satrio in the city's "golden triangle" in Kuningan, South Jakarta, the 1,000 square-meter store -- bearing the name of its franchiser, Office 1 Superstore, nicknamed O1S -- offers 5,000 different office products.

These range from stationery to electronic goods, furniture, computer accessories and office cleaning tools.

About 80 percent of the goods are locally made.

"Our prices are much cheaper than others'," Indra Gunawan, chairman of Global Lintas Media, told a media conference at the outlet Monday.

Indra, however, refused to disclose the size of the investment and only admitted that the business had been planned since 1996, or a year before the economic turmoil struck.

At that time, he said, Global Lintas had already paid an initial fee to the franchiser of US$250,000.

"Under the agreement, we'll be the only O1S franchisee in Indonesia so we could invite interested local parties to run similar outlets with us," Indra explained.

He admitted, however, that it would be difficult for Global Lintas to attract local investors to participate in the business considering the country's weak economic condition.

"We had previously set a target of five outlets per annum. But the crisis has changed our goals. Opening two outlets per year would be good enough for us," Indra said.

In an attempt to lure buyers, the O1S store also offers free delivery service for Jakarta customers and customer membership cards.

Cardholders would receive, among other things, discounts on certain goods, mailed brochures and the opportunity to order by telephone. (ida)