CCK plans foray into Jakarta

It’s targeting Indonesian capital for investment in manufacturing and retail activities

KUCHING: Sarawak-based CCK Consolidated Holdings Bhd (CCK), which has embarked on a regional expansion for its poultry and seafood business, is targetting Jakarta as its next investment destination in manufacturing and retail activities.

Group managing director John Tiong Chiong Hiiung said CCK was now conducting a feasibility market study in the Indonesian capital city as it had a big population.

“Hopefully by the end of this year, we can make a decision (whether to set up a business base in Jakarta),” he told StarBiz yesterday.

Tiong said CCK had invested about US$2mil (RM6mil) in a manufacturing plant and four retail stores in Pontianak, west Kalimantan, Indonesia.

He said the Pontianak factory produced chicken hot-dogs and burgers.

“The demand and growth potentials in Pontianak are good. We plan to open more retail stores there and also in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, which are our new frontiers,” he added.

CCK group now owns and operates a chain of 40 wholesale and retail stores, trading departments and processing plants throughout Sarawak, Sabah and Peninsular Malaysia. There are five retail stores in Kuala Lumpur.

In the last 12 months, the group opened two new stores each in Pontianak and Kuching and set up chicken hatchery and chicken breeder houses in Sabah. It ventured into Pontianak two years ago.

CCK operates an integrated supply chain of breeder, hatchery and broiler farms. Its poultry division is equipped with the latest breeding farm technologies, computer-controlled hatching chambers and automated abattoir.

The abattoir, the only in Sarawak with a HACCP certification, is capable of processing some 4,000 birds per hour.

“Currently, we sell about 25,000 dressed chicken a day in Sarawak,” said Tiong.

He said the group's capital expenditure was between RM10mil and RM15mil a year.

With further expansion, it is targetting an annual revenue growth of between 15% and 20%.

For the financial year ended June 30, 2010, CCK recorded a group turnover of RM355.7mil an increase of 8.3% over RM328.6mil in 2009. Group pre-tax profit rose by 40% to RM23.5mil from RM16.8mil in 2009.

The poultry and retail sector contributed 65% and 17% respectively to the group revenue in the last financial year. Other sectoral contributors were rations (12%) and prawn (6%).

CCK is also involved in prawn aquaculture and processing, largely for the export markets.