Puma returns to RI

JAKARTA (JP): Sports footwear brand Puma will reenter the Indonesian market in June after a seven-year absence, the company said on Wednesday.

A Puma director for Asia, Ian Woodcock, said he was upbeat the company's products would receive a positive response from the market despite the fact that the public's purchasing power had yet to recover from the economic crisis.

He said the company's previous sole distributor for Asia -- overseeing Thailand and China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia -- was forced to quit the market due to business difficulties.

Asked about the threat of locally produced counterfeit goods, Woodcock said each Puma product would be protected by a security label printed by German company Siemens.

In a launching ceremony on Wednesday, the company's distributor in Indonesia, PT Indosports Jaya, presented the autumn and winter 2000 collection.

Product price range from Rp 199,000 (US$27) to Rp 599,000. (yan)