CT Corp and Bukalapak to Form Joint Venture in Online Grocery Sector

The Trans Retail's ownership will be 55% and Bukalapak's 45%

Corry Anestia - 12 January 2022

The conglomerate company owner, Chairul Tanjung, through PT Trans Retail Indonesia, announced an online grocery joint venture with PT Bukalapak.com Tbk (IDX: BUKA).

Click here to reserve your spot!

"The e-commerce will be focused on providing fresh products and food (grocery). The ownership of Trans Retail [will be] at 55% and Bukalapak at 45%," Chairul Tanjung said after a press conference at the Indonesia Stock Exchange.

CT, he often called, is reluctant to elaborate further on the joint venture. However, this corporate action shows a signal from CT Corp to seriously work on selling fresh products and food ingredients on an offline-to-online (O2O) basis.

On a general note, Trans Retail Indonesia is a subsidiary of CT Corp, which oversees modern retail network companies Transmart, Carrefour, and Groserindo. Currently, Trans Retail Indonesia has operated nearly 100 multi-format concept outlets in 28 cities in Indonesia, offering 40,000 products to its 70 million customers.

e-grocery market competition

Prior to this, several top-tier tech companies have taken similar corporate actions. Unlike this one, they take an inorganic strategy by acquiring modern retail chain companies.

Blibli and GoTo have announced corporate actions to take over retail companies in 2021. Blibli with 51% shares owned by PT Supra Boga Lestari Tbk (IDX: RANC) managed by Ranch Market.

Meanwhile, GoTo acquired a 6.74% stake in PT Matahari Putra Prima Tbk (IDX: MPPA) through PT Multipolar Tbk (IDX: MPLPL). Meanwhile, Matahari Putra Prima is a Lippo Group's subsidiary, which has a giant modern retail network in Indonesia. Some of its outlets are Hypermart, Foodmart Supermarket, and Primo Supermarket.

GoTo	Hypermart; 200 outlets in 72 cities in Indonesia, 103 gerai integrated with Hypermart Online	Acquisition
Blibli	Ranch Market; 16 Ranch Markets, 29 Farmers Markets, 1 The Gourmet by Ranch Market, and Day 2 Day by Farmers Markets	Acquisition
Trans Retail-Bukalapak	N/A	Joint Venture (JV

Source: Reorganized by DailySocial

Previously, the Minister of Trade Muhammad Lutfi projected the sales value of fresh food products through the marketplace to reach more than Rp180 trillion in the next five years. Meanwhile, the sales value in 2021 is estimated at IDR 21 trillion.

Lutfi said the contribution of selling fresh food products through the marketplace was still small, but the growth was significant. Moreover, he saw the trend of many synergies between modern retailers and technology companies.

The retail network has started to drive sales with an online-to-offline (O2O) concept by partnering with technology companies with strengths in innovation, product ecosystem, and logistics.

–Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian