TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The president director of Jakarta Sarinah department store, Fetty Kwartati, reported her company's performance amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The country’s first shopping mall was predicted to incur losses again this year as in the previous year.

“It is predicted to record losses in 2020,” said Fetty in a meeting with the House of Representatives (DPR) commission overseeing state-owned enterprises (SOE) in Jakarta, Monday, September 28, 2020.

Fetty mentioned that the losses would reach up to Rp29,9 billion, a significant hike from last year’s downturn at Rp4.6 billion.

The company, she added, would incur losses despite an increase in net income that was estimated to hit Rp637 billion, up from 2019’s Rp246 billion.

In the 2019 financial report, the state-owned firm recorded an after-tax revenue of Rp20 billion in 2018 and a loss of Rp5.2 billion.

In general, Fetty claimed the retail business sector was severely affected by the pandemic in the neighborhood of 70-100 percent. Sarinah was hit by two factors, viz. the pandemic and the complex renovation that forced the temporary closure of stores for one year, she explained.

However, Fetty is upbeat that Sarinah’s performance will improve in 2021, given its reopening once the restoration is completed. She eyed a profit of Rp3.7 billion. “Hopefully, we will record a profit although in a relatively small number,” she said.

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