Sarinah is the leading national retailer of Indonesian handicrafts such as batiks

Marketing Indonesia to the world
PT. Sarinah

Established by Indonesia’s first president, Dr Ir. Sukarno, in 1962 as the country’s first department store, Sarinah is today one of Indonesia’s leading retail chains with 11 locations across the country from Jakarta to Bali. Still state-owned after 45 years in business, Sarinah is also the leading national retailer of Indonesian handicrafts, and serves a high-end clientele, specializing in unique boutique articles that are unavailable elsewhere on the market.

Sarinah has been an Indonesian pioneer in global import-export, and maintains this strong international focus today. “We are committed to promoting Sarinah as a modern retailer, a strong, innovative retail company, and a globally-oriented business with Indonesian culture and focused on customer’s needs,” affirms president director Dr Ketut Arnaya.

Sarinah has also been a driving force in supporting the country’s SMEs. Since 1987, the company has acted as a partner and guarantor for small businesses that were not able to secure sufficient financing from the country’s banking sector on their own. Sarinah’s activities in SME development have been so influential in the country that they led to the creation of a government programme in 1993, the Partnership and Environmental Development Programme.

KETUT ARNAYA President Director of PT Sarinah

State-owned companies in the programme dedicate between one and three per cent of their net profits to SME development.
The next step, says Mr Arnaya, is to promote the products of these SMEs internationally, a pursuit that Sarinah is now actively involved in. Working closely with the Ministry of Trade, Sarinah participates in marketing campaigns and trade fairs abroad in an effort to showcase the finest of Indonesian handicrafts.

Mr Arnaya comments, “Indonesia produces many kinds of quality handicrafts and batiks that come from all its regions. We would like to penetrate international markets through the promotion of these products. In this sense, we will be the country’s marketing manager; SMEs can concern themselves with production, and Sarinah will take care of the marketing.”