Washing machine sales boom; few homes have them

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

After Yanti's employer purchased a fully automatic washing machine last year, the menial task of doing laundry has been much easier for the 23-year-old in-house maid working in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta.

"Previously, I had to hand wash everything. Linens, shirts, towels, diapers, dresses ... you name it! I washed them with my hands," said Yanti, who works for a family of four. "My hands were chafed from all the scrubbing."

As more and more households in Indonesia see the benefit of owning a washing machines, sales of this appliance has increased by 49 percent from about 485,000 in 2003 to 726,000 in 2004, according to data from the Electronic Marketers Club (EMC).

Heribertus Ronny, who is in charge of marketing washing machines for Samsung Indonesia, said there was still much room for growth, especially in the more upscale fully automatic washing machines.

"The overall penetration rate of washing machines in Indonesia remains low, at about 10 percent of all households," said Ronny, whose firm achieved an 18 percent market share last year. "As Indonesians grow wealthier, they will start purchasing the fully- automatic models."

Fully automatic washing machines, where the rinsing and spinning to extract water is done in one compartment, accounted for 30 percent of units sold last year. While semi-automatic machines, where clothes have to be manually transferred from the washing tub to the separate spinning tub, dominated the market with a 70 percent share.

Asa Waworuntu, who is in charge of washing machine sales for market leader LG Electronics, said sales of fully automatic units would grow at a faster rate than those of the much cheaper semi- automatic models.

"More people have realized that fully automatic machines are easier to operate," he said.

He said that LG, which has a 22 percent market share for washing machines, was targeting sales of the fully automatic models to reach 55 percent of all units sold this year. The fastest growth in the fully automatic segment, he added, would be the high-end front-loading models.

"This year, we expect the market share of front-loading units to reach 10 percent," said Waworuntu, adding that this year's share stood at 7 percent of all units sold domestically.

Fully automatic washing machines consist of the basic top- loading models, which cost between Rp 1 million (US$106) and Rp 5 million, and the more advanced front-loading models, which are priced from Rp 3 million to Rp 10 million.

By contrast, semi-automatic models are sold at between Rp 850,000 and Rp 1.5 million, depending on the brand and type.

A front-loading washing machine, which generally costs twice as much as a top-loading machine of a similar size, cleans laundry more thoroughly and is gentler on the clothes, according to Waworuntu.

He added that the front-loading machine usually had more features, thus making it more complicated to operate.

"Most people who own the front-loading machine don't let their maids operate it by themselves," he said.

Yanti, the maid, said she could care less whether she used a semi-automatic, top-loader or front-loader.

"As long as I don't have to use my hands again to wash clothes, it's fine with me," she said. (002)