TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Tourism surge, novel brews cure alcohol industry hangover
Businesses and analysts see alcoholic beverage sales rising this year, though getting back to the pre-pandemic level may take a little longer.
Change Size
Beer bottles are stacked up at PT Multi Bintang Indonesia's brewery in Tangerang, Banten. (PT Multi Bintang Indonesia/-)
H
aving seen sales plummet by more than 30 percent and profits contract by more than 60 percent in 2020, major alcoholic beverage companies in Indonesia are in good spirits today as their industry recovers.
Business players and analysts expect a continued rise in revenue this year thanks to increasing numbers of foreign tourists and the introduction of new products. That said, the number may still be below pre-pandemic levels.
Some smaller producers have capitalized on the rebound momentum to go public at a time of growing investor appetite for the industry, as manufacturers see room for growth amid Indonesia's low per-capita alcohol consumption.
In this year’s first quarter, almost all public alcoholic beverage firms saw topline growth. PT Multi Bintang Indonesia, the Heineken International subsidiary producing the iconic Bintang beer, reported a 9.8 percent year-on-year (yoy) hike in net sales to Rp 740 billion.
Bali-based winemaker PT Hatten Bali doubled its revenue, while Cap Tikus beer brewer PT Jobubu Jarum Minahasa booked a 5.4 percent rise over the same period. Both of those companies held their initial public offerings (IPO) earlier this year.
However, PT Delta Djakarta, which produces Anker and Carlsberg beer in Indonesia, saw its net sales drop by 1.2 percent, which it attributed partly to a seasonal drop at the start of Ramadan.
"Sales volumes of our beer actually grew in the first two months of this year but dropped in March due to the fasting month. On top of that, the alcoholic beverage trade restrictions during that month were tighter this year," a company representative said at a public briefing on May 17.
