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onsumer goods giant PT Unilever Indonesia (UNVR) hopes to be able to reduce imports starting from 2015 as its sister company, PT Unilever Oleochemical Indonesia, is slated to commence project commissioning at the end of this year.

Unilever, a publicly listed company, hopes that olein supplies from Unilever Oleochemical will assist in pushing down imports and its raw material needs, which are mostly foreign-denominated.

'€œAbout 60 percent of our raw materials are in foreign-denominated currencies. By using oleochemicals that are produced locally by our sister company, we hope to be able to reduce that number,'€ Unilever president director Maurits Lalisang said during a public presentation on Wednesday.

Maurits and Unilever'€™s external relations director, Sancoyo Antarikso, refused to reveal the amount of money the company would save from replacing the olein supplies it imported with those from its sister company in the future.

Olein, a derivative of palm oil, is commonly used to produce various personal and household products, and is also used for cooking and baking.

Unilever Olechemical is 99.9 percent owned by Mavibel BVM and 0.1 percent by Marga BV.

Both Mavibel and Marga are units of Unilever NV/Plc, the global parent company.

Unilever Olechemical started constructing its Rp 1.5 trillion (US$127.01 million) oleochemical plant in the special economic zone of Sei Mangke, North Sumatra, last April.

Earlier media reports said the plant would have an annual production capacity of around 200,000 tons of olein.

For Unilever Oleochemical'€™s part in the pioneer industry, the government has granted a five-year tax holiday for the company.

'€œThe tax holiday will only be realized once the product is sold commercially, and the program may be extended for a period of two years,'€ Sancoyo added.

He added that as a sister company, Unilever Oleochemical'€™s businesses were not consolidated into Unilever'€™s own operational and financial reports.

Meanwhile, Maurits said that Unilever had not decided whether or not it would further raise the prices of its products this year to improve its gross margin.

The company increased prices by an average of 4 to 5 percent in the first quarter.

Its January to March report revealed that Unilever suffered from a decline in its bottom line, even though it booked higher net sales.

While its sales surged 15.2 percent to Rp 8.72 trillion, its net profits dropped 5 percent to Rp 1.36 trillion.

Unilever attributed the fall to rising marketing expenses and financial costs, including those triggered by currency volatility.

Maurits said the situation would remain challenging for the firm in 2014.

It is currently preparing its distribution lines to anticipate the upcoming fasting month and Idul Fitri holiday.

'€œThat is a critical time for Unilever because 35 to 40 percent of our full-year sales are booked during that period,'€ he said.

Unilever operates 10 warehouses and 30 sales area offices in Indonesia. It also partners with around 600 distributors throughout the archipelago.

Following the completion of its annual general shareholders'€™ meeting and public presentation on Wednesday, Unilever'€™s shares closed at Rp 30,275 apiece on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX), up 0.7 percent from the previous day.