Aice's Business Can Grow 15 Percent Amid Pressure From COVID-19

JAKARTA - Aice Group's Brand Manager, Sylvana Zhong, said that the annual development of this ice cream from Singapore continues to increase. As of July 2020, it was noted that Aice was able to grow 15 percent despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The development of Aice is above 15 percent until mid-2020 year to date. Our sales target is not decreasing and of course there is a high target. Hopefully the target can be achieved at the end of the year. Thankfully, in this time of COVID-19, sales did not decrease but increased 15 percent to above, "said Sylvana when met at the Aice Factory, Karawang, West Java, Saturday, July 4.

In fact, he said, Aice is also building a third factory in North Sumatra in the midst of this pandemic. Sylvana said that the initial target for this factory was to be completed by the end of 2020, but due to the pandemic, construction could not be optimal.

"For the third factory in North Sumatra in Sei Mangkei, construction will begin in 2019. The plan is for completion this year. But because of COVID-19, we don't know when it will be finished. Because imports of machinery are also constrained to enter Indonesia," he explained.

Sylvana said that Aice's total investment in the two factories, namely Mojokerto, East Java and Sei Mangkei, North Sumatra, reached more than Rp. 500 billion. However, this does not include production machines.

"The total factory investment of Rp. 500 billion does not include in the event that there will be freezers and additional machines. It is an investment that Aice is making for the two factories of East Java and Sei Mangkei, excluding the Karawang Alps. It is an external investment which means only factories," he explained.

Furthermore, Sylvana explained, the third factory to be built in Sei Mangkei has the same land area as East Java, about 4,4125 m, but the building area will be smaller.

"Later the factory model in North Sumatra will be better than East Java because the technology will be better than that in East Java. Broadly, the land area is the same as East Java, but the building is smaller," he said.

For your information, the factory in East Java was built with a factory tour concept. Where consumers can visit the factory for free to see first hand the process of making ice cream from outside without having to enter the production area.