Publicly listed home-improvement retailer PT Ace Hardware Indonesia plans to open between 10 and 12 new stores this year, with most of them located in Java.

Last year, the company opened 13 new stores despite its initial projection of 10.

“The number of new stores this year is lower because we want to look at the [market] situation first,” Ace Hardware vice president for investor relations Helen R. Tanzil said on Thursday.

“If the situation is good, we can open up new stores faster.”

(Read also: ACE Hardware, Informa to open more stores)

On its website, the company says it currently operates 99 stores across the country, with the biggest one located at the Living World Alam Sutera shopping mall in South Tangerang, Banten.

The firm has allocated Rp 300 billion (US$22.5 million) in capital expenditure (capex) sourced from internal reserves to finance the planned expansion.

“The capex is solely for opening the stores because Ace usually does not allocate investment for any other thing,” she said.

The firm is eyeing 6 percent of growth in terms of sales and net profits this year, unchanged from the 5-6 percent growth target set for last year. It will announce its 2016 financial results in late March.

“The results are in line with our expectations,” Helen stated without going into further detail.

The company booked 2.6 percent of growth in its sales for the first nine months of 2016 to Rp 3.51 trillion versus Rp 3.42 trillion booked in the same period in 2015. Its net profit, meanwhile, soared by 21 percent year-on-year to Rp 476.2 billion  (hwa)