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apan-based convenience store chain FamilyMart is eyeing a more aggressive expansion in Indonesia following the opening of its 100th store in the country since it began operations here in 2012.

FamilyMart Indonesia CEO Wirry Tjandra said the number of its stores had expanded from only about 70 outlets in 2017. By the end of this year, it plans to open 20 more stores, he said.

The plan is part of FamilyMart’s long-term strategy to operate 600 stores in Indonesia over the next five years.

“We are very happy with our business growth in Indonesia since we first opened our store six years ago,” Wirry told the press during the opening of the 100th store in Gran Rubina business park, South Jakarta, recently.

“The opening of this store reflects the positive development in our business.”

He declined to mention figures on FamilyMart’s revenue or profits, or its targets, but said the 70 stores it had by the end of 2017 recorded double-digit revenue growth compared to the previous year.

The company’s strategy is mostly to cater to a more segmented consumer class. It has opened almost all of its existing stores within office complexes or apartment buildings, with 50 percent of the outlets situated in Jakarta’s strategic business districts.

This way, FamilyMart’s convenience store concept allows it to sell products at slightly higher prices to cover operational costs, in exchange for practicality and specialty products for its consumers such as ready-to-go meals and drinks, said Wirry.

“In FamilyMart’s outlets located in office areas, we promote food, cigarettes and coffee the most. We sell these three at a more competitive price compared to the other [outlets], which is one of our secrets to survival,” he said.

FamilyMart Indonesia boasts its iced coffee as one of its best-selling products. On July 2, the Indonesian Museum of Records (MURI) marked the company’s achievement of selling the most coffee in one day at 128,137 cups.

He went on to say that an ideal place to start a convenience store business is where the inhabitants or potential customers earn at least US$7,000 per year.

FamilyMart data shows that only a few regions in Greater Jakarta meet this criteria. The World Bank estimates that the country had an average per capita income of $3,846 in 2017.

At present, outside of Jakarta, FamilyMart only operates a few stores in Depok and Karawang, West Java, as well as in Tangerang, Banten.

However, it has lined up new strategies to help FamilyMart expand to other big cities in Indonesia, like Surabaya in East Java and Denpasar in Bali.

“For future expansions, we will come up with a new lower-cost format to penetrate the market. We will stock the future outlets [outside of Jakarta] with even more products and services but with their prices adjusted for affordability,” said Wirry.

FamilyMart Indonesia is growing in the face of the failure of other convenience store brands to survive in the country, such as 7-Eleven and Starmart, the latter operated by local retailer Hero Supermarket.

Listed retailer Modern Sevel Indonesia (MDRN), which held the license for 190 7-Eleven stores in Indonesia, closed down all of its outlets in 2017.

Several issues, including the cancelation of its acquisition by Charoen Pokphand Indonesia and its alleged inability to cope with high operational costs, were cited by various parties, although the company management has never explained the official reasons.

Meanwhile, Hero Supermarket reported that it had stopped the operation of all its 50 Starmart outlets in 2016, with its management citing poor performance.

FamilyMart Indonesia head of retail operations, Gunung Tjahjaputra, said the new FamilyMart stores were opened in the closed 7-Eleven and Starmart stores in Jakarta.

“Quantity-wise, our biggest competitor is now Circle-K, even though the competition is not all head-to-head,” said Gunung on the same occasion. “We estimate that Circle K has 126 stores now so with this year’s target of 120 stores, there’s not much for us to do to catch up [with them].”