Elf-spec trees: A Christmas tree vendor trims miniature trees at her stall in Bantul, Yogyakarta, on Tuesday. The-trees, made from vetiver grass, retail for Rp 250,000 each. JP/Tarko Sudiarno
Christmas time has always been a windfall for Tri Atmojo, who makes a living by producing statues of religious figures and other church icons made of fiber, wood and aluminum, in Ganjuran, Bambanglipuro, Bantul regency.
Tri receives orders for his work up to three months prior to the celebration, including statues of Jesus, Mary, Joseph, goats, angels, crosses, camels, cows as well as the hanging statue of Benedict and pieta candle holders. “We cannot fulfill all the orders mostly due to the limited workers,” Tri said.
He said with 35 employees, he could only produce about 400 hanging benedict statues each month, 300 hundred short of the monthly order of 700 units.
A 45-cm Benedict statue sells for Rp 65,000 while an 80-cm one sells for Rp 250,000. Other products are sold between Rp 25,000 and Rp 450,000 per piece.
To help meet the demand, Tri cooperates with local artisans and has them produce the statues. “I have some 200 families involved in the business and work independently to help me meet with the order,” Tri said, adding that each of the families could earn between Rp 400,000 and Rp 2 million a month from the work.
To maintain quality, Tri said, he applied a tight quality control. “Local artisans already know that products which do not meet with the required standard will be rejected. So, they produce only according to the standard quality,” said Tri.
Dwi Sawitri, his wife, added that, so far, orders had come from mostly Jakarta, Surabaya, Bandung, Yogyakarta and the eastern Indonesian regions of Nusa Tenggara and Papua. The company also has two partner distributors, one in Jakarta and the other in Klaten, Central Java.
“There are also many stores that directly make orders to us via email and by phone,” Tri said.
Tri added employing more workers would help overcome the unmet orders. Yet, he said, it would take months to train them to produce work to the required standard.
Tri, who is a dropout of a school of fine arts, said he started the business as a hobby. He learned how to make statues while he worked for sculptor from 1998 to 2000 before he finally set up his own business. He said he started by selling his products door to door and finally received his first order in 2002.
Tri says he has deliberately set up his business to be labor intensive, and he encourages his employees to be independent by lending them money to start their own businesses.
“I don’t want to become just a broker and a supplier of the raw materials for them. They have to be independent both in the material supply, production and quality control,” he said.
