OldTown strengthens presence in Indonesia

KUALA LUMPUR: OldTown Bhd plans to almost triple its presence by opening 10 outlets per year over the next five years in Indonesia with its master licensee PT Oldtown Indonesia, as part of its ongoing strategy to become the leading white coffee café chain in Southeast Asia.
This will make Indonesia Oldtown's largest international market outside of Malaysia.
OldTown's partnership with PT Oldtown Indonesia began in 2011 and PT OldTown Indonesia had since opened 17 cafés in Jawa and Bali.
The master licensee was recently awarded the licence for the rest of Indonesia and plans to continue developing cafés throughout the country. OldTown's first outlet under this extended agreement is set to open in August 2014, within the next two months.
OldTown group managing director Lee Siew Heng said it awarded PT Oldtown Indonesia the license rights for the rest of Indonesia as it continues to identify expansion opportunities worldwide.
"We look forward to enhancing the coffee culture in Indonesia and introducing them to all-time favourite Malaysian cuisine," he said in a statement.
"We see Indonesia as an exciting long-term opportunity and a market where there is potential for OldTown White Coffee to become a major white coffee café chain. Indonesians love our good quality white coffee and cuisine so we believe a development target of 104 outlets by 2024 is realistic," added Lee.
OldTown recently announced the appointment of OTK (Australia) Sdn Bhd as the master licensee for OldTown in Australia. In addition to these market entries, OldTown has in recent years, focused on international expansion, with its first overseas outlet opening in Singapore in 2008.
Since then, OldTown has expanded into Indonesia as well as China and boasts 238 outlets in Asia, with more than 210 outlets in Malaysia alone.