Veneta Indonesia was established in 2000 with one small shop in Mangga Dua; in 2003 we expanded to open a second shop in the same location. After this we began franchising the stores. Today we have 160 shops across Indonesia and 4 in Malaysia. In between, we set up our own factory in Sentul, Bogor and in 2010 we opened our second factory in Surabaya for distribution purposes.

In 2009 we managed to develop our own ink as previously we would import our ink from Germany but then we managed to produce it ourselves. In 2009 I also set up another company DTM in Malaysia producing an OPC Drum which is one of the key parts of the printing cartridges and this is the first in the ASEAN.

We also teamed up with a partner from Sweden to enter the industrial inks market so ink will remain our focus. At the same time we have been constantly improving our distribution to our outlets and we are increasing the number of outlets by at least 12 every year.

We are the only company which both produces our own ink and printing products as well as distributing them ourselves. Distribution and after sales is a key part of our strategy as a company as Indonesia presents logistical challenges that you have to overcome to provide the best service for your customers.

In my opinion, the Indonesian market is still at an early stage in its development. Computers and printers are well known in the main cities but not in the secondary tier cities of Indonesia so it means there is room for plenty of growth.

Internet coverage through hand phones has spread very quickly, even in the secondary cities. Therefore a challenge for us is to develop distribution through these channels. We also face the challenge of training our human resources to help educate the market on our products. Marketing is therefore the main area where we are lacking human resources although we provide thorough training for all new employees.

Right now we are the market leader in small printers, for the future we want to be the leader in wide format printing.

Following on from that, we want to be a key player in industrial inks. At the moment we are building our after sales team as this is important to provide the best service in all of our 160 stores.

For industrial inks, our target customers will be food and packaging companies as well as wire and wood manufacturers for example.

We will not expand our outlets by ourselves internationally but rather with partners. We recently received an enquiry from a company in Africa looking to purchase the franchise for establishment in their home market. The reason that we will not do it ourselves is that we have previously faced an issue in recruiting human resources in Malaysia so we will continue to concentrate on Indonesia by our own means.

Our ink has already been exported internationally and our target markets are in the ASEAN, the Middle East, Africa as well as Latin America.

We have established joint ventures with partners from Malaysia and Sweden in the past. The ink industry is where we will continue to focus so this would be our area of interest for future joint ventures. Partners that can offer knowhow and technology would be of great interest to us. Our aim is to be the leading company in ink in Indonesia so this is the vision that we would have to share with a partner.

With our partner in Sweden we will begin manufacturing print heads and this will be the first of its kind in the ASEAN.

Many people doubt Indonesia as they do not know the country. Once they know they should come to the market and see for themselves as there are abundant opportunities here.