The company’s net profit climbed by 35.61 percent year-on-year (yoy) to Rp920.68 billion (US$67.76 million) in the January-September period on the back of greater demand for alcoholic drinks, coupled with cost-efficiency measures.

As of September, the sales of its alcoholic products increased by 4.52 percent yoy to Rp2.08 trillion.

Multi Bintang finance director Erik Mul said the increase in the number of tourists visiting Indonesia, which was around 20 percent higher this year, led to more demand for its alcoholic beverages.

“We see stronger customer demand driven by regions that attract tourists,” he said after the firm’s recent extraordinary general shareholders’ meeting.

The sales of its prominent beer brands, such as Bintang Beer and Heineken, mostly came from major cities across Indonesia as well as tourist destinations, including resort island Bali.

Indonesia, where Muslims make up the majority of its population, remains a lucrative market for Multi Bintang despite the government’s ban over beer sales in minimarkets that has hurt the industry, partly because of a shift in consumer behavior.

Now, many people buy alcoholic drinks in cafés, bars and restaurants, said Multi Bintang’s corporate affairs director Bambang Britono.

“Numerous tourist destinations now have bars. They are not necessarily big bars. They could be small ones without live music,” he said.

In contrast to the upward trend in the sales of alcoholic drinks, Multi Bintang’s sales of non-alcoholic beverage sales plummeted 14 percent yoy to Rp 258.38 billion in the January-September period.

Eric attributed the drop in sales to the bleak performance seen across the beverage industry as well as the firm’s launch of a number of new products to support its sales in the past year.

“Last year, we introduced a lot of new products, so they created a lot of stock,” he said.

For the past two years, Multi Bintang have intensively diversified its business to non-alcoholic beverages amid the ban over sales of alcoholic drinks in minimarkets.

To improve its revenue from non-alcoholic drinks, which at present represents 11 percent of its overall sales and include Fayrouz, a malt-based carbonated soft drink, and Strongbow Cider, a drink made from naturally fermented apple, the firm plans to roll out various brand activation strategies to strengthen its brand recognition through television commercials and other events.

According to the firm’s latest financial report, about 99 percent of its products are sold domestically, while the rest are exported.

Currently, Multi Bintang runs three factories, comprising two breweries to make alcoholic beverages in Tangerang, Banten and Sampang Agung, East Java, and a factory to produce non-alcoholic drinks also in Sampang Agung.

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