The company’s shareholders approved on Monday the appointment of Vidjongtius as its new president director, replacing Bernadette Ruth Irawati Setiady.

Vidjongtius is not a new face at Kalbe as he has been active in the company since 1990, serving as finance director and corporate secretary prior to his newest appointment.

With Vidjongtius at the helm, Kalbe is looking to expand its business overseas in an attempt to drive exports contribution to 10 percent of its overall revenue.

Data from the firm shows that exports only account for 5 percent of revenue at present. Kalbe Farma already has a presence in nine countries, namely Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nigeria, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Vietnam.

It mostly exports consumer health and nutritional products, such as cough syrup Woods, energy drink Extra Joss and health drink Hydro Coco.

Kalbe Farma finance director Bernadus Karmin Winata said it was in the process of penetrating the Middle East by marketing Hydro Coco.

“The Middle East is an attractive market. If we look at the United States, market growth is already limited. In the Middle East, the market potentials are bigger,” he said.

Kalbe is looking to enlarge shares in existing areas as well, such as in the Philippines with Extra Joss and Vietnam with Prenagen milk for expecting women.

By the end of the first quarter, revenue from exports stood at Rp 253.49 billion (US$19.08 million), while that of domestic sales reached Rp 4.64 trillion.

Despite their small contribution, exports grew 23.4 percent year-on-year (yoy) in the first three months of 2017. Domestic sales, on the other hand, only climbed 6.9 percent yoy during the same period.

However, Kalbe is also preparing to roll out new products for its Indonesian market as well.

It plans to launch a maximum of 15 new products in 2017, comprising mostly of prescribed pharmaceuticals, and consumer health and nutritional products.

Nutritional products were the largest revenue maker for the company, accounting for 29 percent of sales in the first quarter, while prescribed pharmaceuticals and consumer health accounted for 24.6 percent and 18 percent, respectively.

In addition to the three major products, the company also runs a distribution business, which was its second-largest revenue maker from January to March.

In 2017, Kalbe targets to see between 8 percent and 10 percent growth, bringing its revenue to between Rp 20.9 trillion and Rp 21.3 trillion. It hopes the rupiah will not fluctuate too much against the US dollar as more than 90 percent of its raw materials are still imported.

“We almost reached the target in the first quarter. We’re hoping to see improvements [in financial performance] in the second quarter because of Ramadhan,” Vidjongtius said.

Kalbe traditionally records a surge in sales during Ramadhan and Idul Fitri.

The company is allocating Rp 1.2 trillion in capital expenditure (capex) this year, mostly for the construction of three factories.

It will use about 80 percent of its capex for the development of two factories in Cikarang, West Java, and one factory in Pulogadung, East Jakarta. All are scheduled to be completed in 2020.

Kalbe will use the rest of the capex for several distribution purposes. It currently has 35 subsidiaries, 10 production facilities and 72 branches across the country.

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