The yarn textile industry player, PT Sejahtera Bintang Abadi Textile Tbk (SBAT) is aiming for positive sales growth this year. Management projects that SBAT's sales will be at Rp 200 billion by the end of the year.

"We are targeting for the end of 2021 period of IDR 200 billion, compared to 2020 of around IDR 177.55 billion. So we project it will increase by 15% -20%," said SBAT President Director, Jefri Junaedi.

Jefri said that the performance of Sejahtera Bintang Abadi last year was hampered by several factors. A fire in one production line forced Sejahtera Bintang Abadi to lose production capacity of around 30%-40% last year.

"Thus, our sales dropped in 2020. In line with the decline in sales, gross profit also decreased," said Jefri.

As an illustration, in 2020 SBAT posted net sales of Rp. 177.55 billion, or decreased by 43.77% from net sales in 2019 which reached Rp. 315.79 billion.

SBAT still recorded a net loss for the year of Rp 5.88 billion. This figure actually decreased by 86.86% on an annual basis or yoy from the loss in 2019 of Rp 44.19 billion.

Even so, his party remains optimistic that this year SBAT will book a better performance than last year's realization. "We are facing an uneasy storm around the world. But we remain optimistic and always think about moving forward," he said.

In order to smoothen business performance this year, Jefri said SBAT will expand its business by purchasing three sets of open end machines. The plan is that these machines will start operating at the end of 2021 until the beginning of 2022.

"In 2021, we have asked for approval from shareholders to buy new machines. Thus, if there are no obstacles, at the end of the year the machines can come and our production volume will automatically increase," added Jefri.

He further explained that at the end of this year, SBAT will hold a rights issue of Rp 130 billion. Sejahtera Bintang Abadi will use Rp 70 billion from the rights issue to purchase the three sets of open end machines. "We are still in the process at the OJK, maybe at the end of 2021 or early next year the engine will already be realized," said Jefri.

Meanwhile, until now the production capacity of SBAT is in the range of 7,000 balls-7,500 balls. SBAT expects capacity to increase by 750 balls to a maximum of 8,250 balls following the new engine.

In addition to business expansion through the addition of machines, this year SBAT also plans to expand their customer base in the export market. This is because the export market still has great potential. "For exports because the local market has started to saturate and the opportunity for exports is very large," added Jefri.

A little information, in 2020 the portion of Sejahtera Bintang Abadi's export sales will be at 22% or Rp. 60.05 billion. Meanwhile, local sales are still the mainstay with a portion of 78% or Rp 117.49 billion.

To date, SBAT has explored various countries in the export market. Some of these issuer's export destinations are South Korea, Japan, Russia, Germany, Canada, Egypt, and Uruguay.

As of March 2021, SBAT still posted a 27.84 percent decline in net sales from the previous Rp 60.41 billion in the first quarter of 2020, down to Rp 43.59 billion.