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T Ace Hardware Indonesia (ACES), a retailer of home improvement products, managed to grow according to its annual target of 25 percent during the first half of the year.

Ace Hardware Indonesia president director, Prabowo Widyakrisnadi, said the retailer's performance in the first half of 2013 remained 'in line with our sales projection'.

'Sales grew by almost 25 percent to Rp 1.8 trillion [US$174,6 million],' he said.

The net sales revenue of the retailer rose by 24.2 percent year-on-year to Rp 1.78 trillion in the January to June period of 2013.

Spokesperson for the retailer, Helen R. Tanzil, added that their same store growth (SSG), or the sales increase per store, of 6 percent was one of the main factors behind the increase in sales revenue.

'Another factor is the higher contribution from sales,' she said.

Non-consignment sales, which rose 23.4 percent annually to Rp 1.7 trillion, contributed 98.4 percent to net revenue. The remainder trickled from consignment sales, which also registered a year-on-year rise of 113.6 percent to Rp 27.8 billion.

'The first half typically represents 45 percent of annual sales,' Helen added.

Meanwhile, Prabowo noted that the retailer was able to maintain their financial performance despite higher operating costs connected to the increase in minimum wages.

Provinces across Indonesia have lifted up their minimum wage in the beginning of the year. The Jakarta administration, for example, increased labor's minimum wage by 44 percent to Rp 2.2 million.

'In spite of higher operating expenses, particularly related to manpower, the company was still able to record a positive net profit growth of 1 percent in the first half,' Prabowo said.

Ace Hardware sales-related expense rose 25.6 percent year-on-year to almost Rp 926 billion. Meanwhile, operating-related costs went up 32.7 percent annually to Rp 644.1 billion.

The considerable rise in costs left Ace Hardware with Rp 181.8 billion in net profit, 1.02 percent more than the same period in the previous year.

According to Helen, the retailer would improve their profitability in the second half of the year by pushing up productivity, including by setting up more stores.

'We have opened six new stores in the first half of the year and in July, we have established another three,' she said, adding that Java remained their focus location.

Ace Hardware opened their first store in Jambi during the period, and has brought up their total number of stores to at least 82 stores in 25 cities. The new stores translate into approximately 11,500 square meters in additional retail space.

Helen further pointed out that the retailer aimed to open at least 15 new stores throughout the year, adding that they retailer still had Rp 113 billion left in their capital expense budget to tap into in the remaining half of the year.

'We had used up Rp 37 billion of our capital expense budget of Rp 150 billion in the previous half,' she noted.

Ace Hardware, whose major shareholder is PT Kawan Lama Sejahtera (59.97 percent), closed shares at Rp 750, or 10 points higher than the opening price.