This year's Eid mubarak momentum has not been too strong to improve the country's garment industry. So far, industry players are still overshadowed by the uncertainty of policies on social restrictions, garment imports and people's purchasing power. However, a number of producers have devised strategies to keep the opportunities available.
Secretary General of the Indonesian Textile Association (API) Rizal Tanzil hopes that this year's Eid can be better than last year. This can already be seen from the performance of the utilization of the medium (midstream) textile industry at the level of 70%.
"However, the industry is still facing a number of obstacles, including the increase in raw material prices which caused the condition of TPT to decline relatively early in the year and safeguards for garments where PMK has not yet been released," he explained.
According to Rizal, Indonesia has a large market share and so far, garment imports in the middle low sector are very high. Not to mention that used clothes that enter through small ports are considered to have eroded the SME segment of the medium industry in the local market.
Launching from data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) managed by API, the volume of garment imports in January 2021 grew by 3.8% to 7.97 million kilograms from the previous 7.68 million kilograms in December 2020. The trend of garment imports from October 2020 to January 2021 continues to increase.
Seeing the current conditions, Rizal explained that the need for clothes for Eid, has not shown a significant movement. According to him, this is also influenced by people's purchasing power. "Perhaps the government can return to provide assistance to the community again," said Rizal.
This concern is also felt by a number of clothing manufacturers. Even so, producers certainly have prepared a strategy to deal with it.
CEO of PT Mega Perintis Tbk (ZONE), FX Afat Adinata, said that this year's Eid there is still uncertainty whether PSBB / PPKM will continue until Eid. Given that vaccination is still not optimal, it is estimated that this year's Eid conditions will still be around 60% -70% of the conditions of Eid before the Covid-19 pandemic.
"The Covid-19 pandemic has the most significant impact because it affects purchasing power and restrictions on mobility," he explained.
Even so, ZONE sees that there are still business opportunities in this year's Eid. Therefore, this garment manufacturer that sells Manzone brand clothes has been preparing Eid collections in all stores since now. Afat said this strategy was carried out in order to get early sales.
Not only that, Afat said, ZONE will provide many attractive promotions such as special prices.
Regarding factory utilization, Afat admitted that the ZONE garment factory utilization level has been normal since the beginning of this year. "Garment utilization is 100 percent because it only fulfills 50 percent to meet ZONE's retail needs and the remaining 50 percent is for outsourcing," Afat said.
Another garment manufacturer, PT Trisula Textile Industries Tbk (BELL) also feels challenges this year's Eid, especially due to social restrictions.
Director of BELL, R Nurwulan Kusumawati explained that even though there are challenges such as social restrictions, BELL projects that this year will be better because retail stores have started operating. Along with the recovery of conditions due to the pandemic.
"It is hoped that more and more people will shop, especially because of the momentum of the Eid mubarak holiday. BELL is optimistic that the Eid momentum can contribute to positive performance for the company," he explained.
Nurwulan explained that BELL takes advantage of this opportunity by aggressively marketing products both offline or through the retail and online segments through social media and marketplaces.
Meanwhile, the Corporate Secretary of PT Pan Brothers Tbk (PBRX), Iswardeni explained that Pan Brothers' sales are dominant or 95% for exports to foreign brands. Therefore, even though the local garment industry is facing challenges, the impact is not felt by Pan Brothers.
"The local market is also promising. PBRX has its own brand with a concentration in retail and direct to consumers. Besides offline for retail, we are also online. So there are many opportunities from other local sources," said Iswardeni.
Iswardeni admitted that the momentum of Eid mubarak is an annual opportunity that has interesting opportunities. Currently, the clothes produced by Pan Brothers for a number of brands are marketed through shopping centers and online through E-commerce.
