Soeharto inaugurates Goro outlet

Soeharto inaugurates Goro outlet

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto inaugurated yesterday a
wholesale outlet billed as Southeast Asia's largest in the elite
Kelapa Gading residential district in East Jakarta.

The latest Goro outlet in town, which offers more than 30,000
kinds of products at heavily discounted prices, comes with a huge
entertainment center and a massive area allocated for food
stalls.

The owner of the facility is Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, the
youngest son of the President, and owner of the diversified
Humpuss business group.

"This is a purely national endeavor," Tommy told reporters
after driving his father around on a tour of the facility in an
electric car. "There is no foreign investment here. This is a
joint venture, a partnership between private companies and
cooperatives."

PT Goro Batara Sakti, the company which owns this facility and
the first Goro shop in Pasar Minggu in South Jakarta, involves
the Gelael group, which has decades of experience in retailing
through its Gelael supermarkets.

Tommy said he plans to open several more wholesale outlets
across Indonesia, bringing in even more small-scale traders and
cooperatives. "Jakarta alone has room for at least five more
shops. But the next one will be built in Surabaya," he said.

PT Goro Batara Sakti's Chief Commissioner, I. Danubrata, was
more specific, saying that three Goro centers will be built next
year, and that by 2000 the company hopes to manage at least 12
wholesale outlets.

Around 90 percent of the 30,000 products on sale at the shop
are locally manufactured, most of them supplied at factory
prices, Danubrata said.

Joining the tour of the 10-hectare facility yesterday were
several of the children and grandchildren of President Soeharto.

Among the cabinet officials taking the tour were Coordinating
Minister for Production and Distribution Hartarto and Minister of
Cooperatives Subiakto Tjakrawerdaya. (emb)