Nu Skin invests $20m in RI market
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The profitability of direct selling in the Indonesian market has prompted another player, Nu Skin Enterprises Inc., to invest US$20 million to tap a bigger market not only in the country but also in the Southeast Asian region in general.
Starting its operation on Aug. 4, the New York Stock Exchange- listed company believes it will take in $15 million from the domestic market by the end of the year.
"We are very happy to be expanding our business and developing a solid market here ... to tap business opportunities among Indonesia's 240 million people," Nu Skin regional vice president of Southeast Asia, Andrew Fan, told the press on Tuesday.
The company was upbeat about its revenue projections based on the increasing demand for its products from Indonesian customers, who have until recently been purchasing them from Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
Fan said that tapping into the Indonesian market was part of Nu Skin's business expansion in Southeast Asia, with the region generating US$100 million in revenue per annum.
"We expect the figure to triple over the next three years," he added.
As for the global market, the premium personal care and nutritional supplement products producer and distributor expects to earn over $599 billion during the remainder of the year, mainly from its growing markets in Japan and China.
BAgung Sardjono, general manager of PT Nusa Selaras Indonesia, distributor of Nu Skin here, said the firm hoped to attract more people to work as its distributors, considering there are only 1.5 million people involved in the direct selling businesses here.
"We had hoped to get 5,000 distributors this year. But in only four days after starting our operation, the number has exceeded our target," said Agung, the former president director of cosmetics direct selling firm PT Avon Indonesia.
Fan hoped the Indonesian unit could attract more than 30,000 active distributors within two years.
"For the moment, Thailand has the highest number in the region with 20,000 active distributors," he said, adding that the company has 900,000 distributors world-wide with an average of 60,000 new distributors coming in every month.
Nu Skin also plans to open three more branches in the country, but no details were available yet.
"We will open one new branch every six months. But we haven't decided which city will be next. We will have to see how the business is going in cities outside Jakarta," said Fan. (006)