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T Lotte Mart Indonesia, the local subsidiary of Korean retail chain Lotte Group, plans to open two more hypermarket outlets this year and enter the country’s growing e-commerce market to further boost its presence in Indonesia.

The company’s commercial director, Donny S. Handoko said on Friday that the expansion of its retail outlets was part of Lotte’s business strategy to further better tap into Indonesia’s growing middle-class.

“We will open other hypermarkets in Jakarta and Surabaya this year,” he said.

Currently the company runs 41 retail stores, which consist of 25 wholesale stores, 14 hypermarkets, and two supermarkets in cities such as Jakarta; Bandung, West Java; Surakarta and Semarang, Central Java: Makassar, South Sulawesi; and Palembang, South Sumatra.

Besides opening the two new outlets, Lotte Mart also plans to open an online marketplace in cooperation with Salim Group, on which the two companies signed an agreement in February. “We are planning to form a joint venture with Salim Group’s subsidiary, Indomaret,” Donny said.

Under the partnership, both companies plan to set up an e-commerce platform and logistics service that can be used by both Lotte’s offline stores and Indomaret’s 11,000 convenience stores to sell their products.

Prior to the big step, Lotte Mart Indonesia has applied several digital measures to sell its products, among others are the cooperation with mobile applications Happy Fresh and Go-Jek’s Go-Mart. Both apps can be used by consumers to order and deliver Lotte’s products merely through gadget clicks.

Donny said with such expansion plans, Lotte Mart is expected to be able to increase its share of the Indonesian retail market.

“When we took over the Makro Cash and Carry in 2008 and changed it into Lotte Mart Wholesale in 2010, we knew that the Indonesian market would be a good opportunity for us,” he said after an event to celebrate Lotte Mart’s 18th anniversary, which was attended by its strategic partner MasterCard Indonesia.

In addition to the 41 retail stores, in Indonesia Lotte Group operates one department store, 31 Lotteria fast-food franchises, and two Lotte duty-free shops.

Lotte Group operates in several major countries, including the US, UK, Russia, India, Malaysia, Thailand and Poland. With total assets of around US$81 billion last year, it employs around 60,000 people in 60 business units such as manufacturing, financial services, IT, construction and retail worldwide.

Lotte Indonesia has yet to operate in tourism, leisure, and construction business like those run by the Malaysian subsidiary. However, Donny said, his company was still eyeing opportunities in those other sectors.

MasterCard Indonesia’s director, Tommy Singgih said that the growing Lotte was a big opportunity for his company.

“As Lotte’s consumer base keeps on growing, I believe that a deeper synergy between the two companies will benefit both,” he said. (adt)