MPPA sales grow 9.2% amidst social restrictions and scarcity of cooking oil

PT Matahari Putra Prima Tbk. (MPPA) recorded total sales of IDR1.69t ($112.41m) in the first quarter of 2022.

PT Matahari Putra Prima Tbk.’s (MPPA) sales increased by 9.2% year-on-year (YoY) compared to the first quarter of 2021 with comparable sales growth of 5.2%. MPPA's Chief Executive Officer, Elliot Dickson said that the public activity restriction or pemberlakuan pembatasan kegiatan masyarakat (PPKM) from January to mid-March 2022 had an impact on the company's store operating hours, both located inside and outside shopping centres. Then the regulations that prohibit the entry of children under the age of 12 in PPKM conditions also caused a decrease in visitors and loss of business potential.

The Indonesian government regulation that stipulates the retail price ceiling or harga eceran tertinggi (HET) of IDR14.000 ($0.93) per liter for packaged cooking oil in mid-January 2022 made a significant impact on the scarcity of cooking oil in the market. This created pressure and challenges for MPPA because packaged cooking oil is one of the company's main and important products.

Despite these, MPPA managed to record a good performance. "MPPA's market share grew by 26.2% at the end of the first quarter of 2022, compared to a market share of 24.7% at the end of 2021 (FY2021) in the supermarket and hypermarket market sectors," Elliot said, citing NielsenIQ data.

The former President of PT Lion Super Indo added that MPPA's e-commerce business also showed significant growth of 56.3% and it represented 7.3% of total regular sales in the first quarter of 2022.

"This was achieved as a result of MPPA continuing its efforts to expand and strengthen its omni-channel strategy through focused and intensive promotional collaborations with marketplace partners, as well as strengthening its organic online business, namely through Chat & Shop through WA and online Hypermart," said Elliot.

Solid performance

In month to date (MTD) April 2022, overall MPPA sales increased by more than 26.6% YoY. In detail, regular sales (excluding online sales) grew by 26.5% YoY and e-commerce business sales increased by 81% YoY.

During April, MPPA focused on taking advantage of the Eid momentum with two important promotional events and several other activities. 

"MPPA is changing the direction of the company's sales growth and is preparing to enter the second quarter of 2022 and the next period during 2022 to bring MPPA to the right footing as a leading modern FMCG retailer in Indonesia," he added.

The company, which operates the Hypermart supermarket, will focus on running a retail business both offline and online. In addition, the company will also undertake more collaborations with marketplace players and several expansions of smaller and more efficient stores in independent locations.