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Tan Ek Tjoan strives to endure competition
Daily bread: A man packs bread before loading it onto bread carts in the Tan Ek Tjoan outlet and factory in Cikini, Central Jakarta, last Tuesday
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D
em>Daily bread: A man packs bread before loading it onto bread carts in the Tan Ek Tjoan outlet and factory in Cikini, Central Jakarta, last Tuesday. The bakery, which has been in operation since 1953, sells some 9,000 loaves every day. JP/Awo
After nearly a century, bakery chain Tan Ek Tjoan remains strong as a classic bakery favored by locals. But a strong brand alone is, it seems, not enough to stay competitive.
Tan Ek Tjoan co-owner Josey R. Darwin, who took over the management of the bakery in 2012, admitted that since Kim Tamara ' the son of founder Tan Ek Tjoan ' died in 2007, the bakery had suffered annual losses.
'Sales dropped to only 9,000 bread items a day, one-third of the initial sales. The third generation of the bakery's owners, Alexandra Tamara ' a friend of mine ' kept injecting money every year because of the losses,' Josey told The Jakarta Post at the bakery's branch in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, recently.
Tan Ek Tjoan was first established in 1921 in Bogor, West Java, but the owner later opened an outlet and factory in Cikini, Central Jakarta, in 1955 to tap into the growing market, as well as to create jobs for the locals.
Josey, who initially aimed to help Alexandra, who lives in the Netherlands and works as a copywriter, said that he had decided to officially join the board of shareholders in 2012 despite his lack of experience in managing a culinary business. He said he agreed 'because it's Tan Ek Tjoan'.
To prevent further losses, the management finally made the tough decision to sell the bakery's 60-year-old outlet and factory in Cikini.
'Property values in Cikini have surged to the point where it does not make any sense to maintain a factory in the area. If we had a choice, of course we wouldn't let it go. But this is the most feasible plan to save the business,' he said, adding that the management would find a replacement outlet in Cikini.
A new factory in Ciputat, South Tangerang, is currently under construction to replace the 2,300-square meter factory in Cikini. It is expected to be able to produce 100,000 bread products a day.
'The size of new factory will be about 2,200 square meters,' Josey said, adding that the existing equipment would be transferred.
'Most of the equipment, including mixers and ovens, are more than 30 years old but they still work very well,' he said.
He also emphasized that the bakery would preserve the same recipes and techniques to maintain the founder's legacy, but said he planned to expand the variety of products to lure new and younger customers.
'For example, I plan to create cinnamon-flavored gambang bread,' he said, referring to a famous Tan Ek Tjoan bread that boasts a hint of banana flavor.
Realizing that it takes more than preserving legacy to recover from loss, Josey has also unveiled plans to exploit and untapped market: the lower-middle class.
'To produce bread as thick as Tan Ek Tjoan's requires certain amounts of each ingredient, so we can never reduce the prices. This encouraged me to think about developing secondary products to tap into the lower-middle class market,' he said.
While modern bakeries rely on outlets in shopping malls, Tan Ek Tjoan sells from traditional man-powered carts.
'We currently have 100 carts and one of the cart-pullers is 80 years old. So we don't only have loyal customers but also loyal sellers. Even in the US, the trend is for traditional carts,' he said, adding that he aimed to target untapped areas in the Greater Jakarta area through mobile sales.
One Tan Ek Tjoan patron, Ninin, a resident of Kemang, South Jakarta, said she had started to love Tan Ek Tjoan's products in the 1980s when her sister regularly brought home them home.
'Bim Bam bread is my favorite. I can't find bread like that anywhere,' she sighed.
Wilda Hairin Najwa, a Surabaya resident temporarily living in Jakarta before leaving to study in Europe, said Tan Ek Tjoan's bread reminded her of her grandmother's homemade bread.
'I first heard about it from a friend and I instantly fell in love with it. It is thick, unlike most modern breads, just like my grandmother's.'.
