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ocal minimarket operators PT Indomarco Prismatama and publicly listed PT Sumber Alfaria Trijaya (AMRT) are starting to offer more services to customers in response to growing competition from foreign players.

Indomarco, which runs the country'€™s largest minimarket chain, Indomaret, is aiming to partner with a local travel agency to provide customers with ticket and hotel reservation services.

The plan was made after the firm recently launched an express courier service across its Indomaret outlets in collaboration with local cargo service provider, the RPX Group.

'€œWe expect that we can launch travel services in two months or before the end of this year,'€ said Indomarco'€™s marketing director, Wiwiek Yusuf.

The service will allow Indomaret customers to book tickets and accommodation for popular tourist destinations at Indomaret stores nationwide.

The country'€™s travel business had seen a very positive trend in recent years, particularly in air travel, he added.

The Transportation Ministry estimates that the number of air travelers in the country will increase by 11 percent to more than 100 million this year from 93.56 million last year, driven by the country'€™s stronger purchasing power and growing middle class.

An estimated 90 million Indonesians will join the country'€™s consumer class by 2030, giving the country a total of 135 million middle-class consumers, and so creating a potential business value of US$1.8 trillion, according to a report by consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

Indomaret is now collaborating with 60 companies, including state-owned rail operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) and Citilink, the budget airline belonging to national carrier Garuda Indonesia.

Wiwiek said that besides aiming to expand its services, Indomaret would strengthen its presence in the country by having 10,600 outlets across the archipelago by year-end, up from the current 9,901 outlets.

The construction of each outlet was estimated to cost between Rp 400 million ($34,253) and Rp 500 ($42,816) million, he said.

'€œWe will also add a number of outlets with a convenience-store concept in big cities,'€ he said, adding that Indomaret currently ran 110 outlets with that concept, dubbed Indomaret Point, to give youngsters alternative hangouts.

Indomaret Points aim to challenge foreign-owned convenience stores in the country, such as Japan'€™s large convenience-store chains, 7-Eleven and FamilyMart.

Sumber Alfaria Trijaya (AMRT), meanwhile, which runs minimarket chains Alfamart, AlfaExpress and Japan'€™s convenience store Lawson, will be focusing more on its online service, Alfaonline, this year.

'€œAs of May, we had around 20,000 Alfaonline users and we are now developing the system to attract more,'€ said AMRT e-commerce development manager Hilda Dhamayanti.

The move is part of a strategy to compete with online grocery store Sukamart, which was launched by Japanese conglomerate the Sumitomo Corporation in January last year.

AMRT also plans to spend Rp 1.5 trillion this year to add 1,200 new Alamart stores in Java, Bali, Nusa Tenggara, Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi, bringing its total number of outlets to more than 9,500 by year-end.

The firm is also in the process of expanding its business overseas by setting up 50 Alfamart outlets in the Philippines, under a partnership agreement with the Philippine-based SM Investments Corp.