Ace Hardware Conglomerate Kuncoro Wibowo Opens New Outlets In Margorejo Surabaya, Total Already Has 217 Outlets Throughout Indonesia

JAKARTA - The retail company belonging to the conglomerate Kuncoro Wibowo, PT Ace Hardware Indonesia Tbk (ACES) has not stopped expanding in the opening of new outlets, although there are also several outlets that they have closed because they have run out of rental periods or are considered no longer productive.

Finally, Ace Hardware announced the opening of a new store in Margorejo, Surabaya on Thursday 20 January.

"The outlets are located in Margorejo, Surabaya with an area of about 700 square meters. Thus, the company has a total of 217 active outlets," ACES Corporate Secretary Helen Tanzil said in a written statement.

For information, ACES started last year with ownership of 207 outlets in Indonesia. Throughout 2021 they closed 5 outlets and opened 14 new outlets.

This trend is not much different from the business trend of the previous year again, aka in 2020. At that time, Ace Hardware also opened 14 new outlets, although only closing 3 new outlets at the same time.

Mirae Asset Sekuritas analyst Christine Natasya assessed that, although she had not released the audited performance at the end of the year, she said that ACES' business performance in October-December 2021 was starting to show a rebound, although it was not yet prominent.

In the unaudited performance report she received, Christine said that by the end of the year ACES posted a performance that was still under pressure from the COVID-19 pandemic. The company recorded revenues of Rp. 6.64 trillion and a profit of around Rp. 485 billion.

"Although there is an increase on a quarterly basis, SSSG is still negative compared to 2020 considering that last year's consumer growth was mostly felt by e-commerce stores," said Christine in a written statement.

For comparison, in 2020 ACES recorded revenues and profits of Rp7.41 trillion and Rp733 billion, respectively. In the last pre-pandemic period or 2019, the company even still reported an annual income of IDR 8.14 trillion and an annual profit of IDR 1.03 trillion.

The Mirae Asset Research Team estimates that ACES' revenue in 2022 is IDR 7.56 trillion. This figure will indeed be equivalent at the pre-pandemic level, but it has not been able to exceed the 2019 record.

Meanwhile, profit is projected to be in the range of Rp. 681 billion, which is a double digit increase but is still limited due to the projected increase in shipping costs.

"Traffic in Jakarta, where the majority of ACES outlets are located, still looks gentler than pre-pandemic conditions. However, we see an optimistic trend as the strategy continues to open new outlets," said Christine.