theceomagazine.com | 47“We sell our products through about
40,000 shops, and the latest milestone was a
joint venture with DuluxGroup of Australia,”
Wijono Tanoko, Soetikno’s eldest son and
President Director, says proudly. Continuing
its foray into the growing Asian markets, and
spotting Indonesia as a particularly vibrant
marketplace, DuluxGroup is partnering with
Avian to sell some of its Selleys adhesives and
sealants range starting in mid 2018.
“This is another step that we have taken
in our effort to be more professional and
to continue with our business expansion.
Essentially, our aim is to supply to as many
building material shops as possible throughout
the country. This year, our company should
be listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange.
We are in the process of preparing for that.”
Wijono says that one of the greatest
challenges to overcome when building a
national company in Indonesia is geography.
“Indonesia essentially has 17,000 islands so, as
you can imagine, the logistics are not going“ Indonesia essentially has
17,000 islands so, as you
can imagine, the logistics
are not going to be easy.”
to be easy,” he says. “To achieve our current
position in the decorative paint market, we
have opened our own distribution centres.
Currently, we have 68 distribution centres
spread across the country.
“Within each, we have a centre manager,
supervisors and sales people. Then, to support
the product supply, we have our own trucks
to make deliveries, even in remote areas.
We have about 1,800 salespeople and
400 trucks. Delivery is not easy, outside the
island of Java, if you rely on third-party
trucking services. What that means is that we
have to invest our money in all these trucks
so that we can guarantee delivery to all the
retail shops around Indonesia.”
Another hurdle has been competition.
Wijono goes on to explain that the big
international players have all set up in
Indonesia, attracted by its large population.
“Indonesia is the fourth most populous
country in the world,” he says. “That being
the case, all the big multinational companies
in paint have entered Indonesia. To counter
all these big competitors, we need to be
constantly innovative, both in product
development and in our sales and »Interview | INSPIRE