South Korean retailer Lotte plans to invest Rp9 trillion (US$870m) in Indonesia to expand its chain of hypermarkets, with the aim of becoming the country's largest retailer.
Lotte, through its Indonesian subsidiary Lotte Shopping Indonesia, will funnel the growth through the Makro Indonesia hypermarket chain, which it bought last year and will rename to Lotte Mart, reported The Jakarta Post.
The retailer aims to have 45 of the stores in Indonesia by 2013, according to Lotte Shopping Indonesia's president Moon Young Pyo.
'We expect to be the number one retailer in Indonesia in five years,' he said.
'We target Rp5.7 trillion (US$4.84bn) of revenue for this year, increasing by 20 percent up on Makro Indonesia’s revenue last year.'
The Makro hypermarket chain previously operated as a wholesale supplier with a membership system. That system will be combined with Lotte Mart's own 'loyal customer' system.
Currently, Lotte's Indonesian operations account for about 10 per cent of its global earnings.
The group has 91 Lotte Marts throughout South Korea, China, Indonesia and Vietnam. In its home country of South Korea, Lotte Mart holds a 20 per cent market share.
