Megasari Makmur, a leading player in household insecticides, air fresheners and wet tissues, is upbeat that sales from the company and its affiliates will be able to grow by 20 percent to Rp 3 trillion ($256 million) in its 2014 fiscal year, thanks to a new product line-up and strong consumer spending in the country.
Megasari is controlled by India’s Godrej Consumer Products, which acquired the Indonesian company in 2010.
Branding itself Godrej Indonesia, the company has managed to build a strong market presence in Southeast Asia’s largest economy with several of its consumer goods products, including the insecticide brand Hit, Stella air freshener and Mitu wet tissues — all of which are market leaders in their respective categories.
The company offers 13 household products, including Fogo air freshener for closets and dressers, Wetties wet tissues, food wrapping product Klinpak and Cap Gajah, a rodent and insect glue.
The company estimated that close to 15 million households across Indonesia use at least one of its brands every day.
“In the last four years, we have invested nearly $100 million in building new state-of-the-art facilities to produce world-class products at affordable prices to serve our consumers,” said Naveen Gupta, president director at Godrej Indonesia. “We have recently set up a new 30,000-square meter factory in Gunung Putri [West Java] to produce our Hit and Mitu ranges.
“We are confident that in this fiscal year we can achieve a [sales] turnover of Rp 3 trillion. That compared to Rp 2.5 trillion we achieved last year,” he said, adding that Godrej’s fiscal year will follow India’s April to March financial year.
On Friday, the company inaugurated its headquarters in Halim Perdanakusuma, East Jakarta, which will house 250 employees, marking a new chapter of the company’s presence in the country.
Godrej Indonesia has a total of 5,000 Indonesian staffers and four factories, of which three are located in Gunung Putri and another in Bekasi, West Java.
Godrej is one of India’s largest household and personal care companies. Outside India, Indonesia is the biggest international operation for Godrej.
Vivek Gambhir, managing director of Godrej Consumer Products said having strong operations in Indonesia is part of the group’s strategy in becoming a fast moving consumer goods leader among the region’s emerging markets, especially in the three business categories of personal care, hair care and home care.
Godrej Consumer sells its products in more than 60 countries across the world.
Nisaba Godrej, executive director at the Indian company assured that “innovation” is a key growth driver for the company. “We are doing a lot of experimenting and employing design-driven people to come up with better innovations,” she said.