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read producer PT Nippon Indosari Corpindo is optimistic that it will be able to increase its sales by 20 percent this year despite the fact fuel-price hikes will escalate production costs and decrease customers’ purchasing power.

Operations director Yusuf Hady said that his company, which produces bread under the Sari Roti brand, expected to book Rp 1 trillion (US$109 million) in revenue this year.

Although the company has yet to release its 2011 financial report, Yusuf said that it booked about Rp 813 billion in revenue last year. He did not provide details on net profits, but said that the profit margin was about 12 percent last year.

“The increase in revenue [this year] will be supported by increased production from new factories. We launched a new factory in Cibitung, West Java, last February and will see other two factories ready for operation in Palembang in August and in Makassar in October,” Yusuf said on Tuesday.

The company, with total assets of about Rp 633 billion as of September 2011, is the country’s biggest bread producer with 24,000 outlets across the country.

Yusuf revealed that his company’s bread sales increased by about 40 percent to around Rp 240 billion in the first three months of the year, up from Rp 172 billion in the same period last year. The increase, he said, was supported by sales growth, particularly in Jakarta and Greater Jakarta at about 50 percent, Medan at about 10 percent, Semarang at about 15 percent and Pasuruan at about 25 percent.

According to Yusuf, the company’s production capacity stood at 1.8 million loaves of bread per day last year. The opening of the Cibitung factory has boosted Nippon Indosari Corpindo’s production capacity to 2.2 million loaves per day. Production from factories in Palembang and Makassar enable the company to produce up to 2.6 million loaves per day this year.

The company has allocated up to Rp 150 billion for the establishment of the factories in Palembang and Makassar.

As of March, Nippon Indosari Corpindo has six bread factories — two plants in Cikarang, West Java; one in Cibitung, West Java; one in Pasuruan, East Java; one in Semarang, Central Java; and another plant located in Medan, North Sumatra.

According to Yusuf, the company will raise Sari Roti’s prices by about 8 percent to 10 percent starting from April 1, in response to the increase in fuel price.

“Our cost of production will certainly be affected by the fuel price hike. We are optimistic that customers will keep buying our products,” he said.

– JP/ Raras Cahyafitri