big profits investing in logistics

As the trend of online shopping continues to rise, businesses in the logistics industry are even more attractive. Moreover, as one of the sectors that played a vital role during the Covid-19 pandemic, the demand for fast delivery services (delivery express) has grown significantly.

Chairman of the Association of Indonesian Express Delivery Service Companies (Asperindo) M. Feriadi said, with relatively small barriers to entry, businessmen and investors can also be agile in developing their business in the logistics sector.

Currently logistics companies are also increasingly widespread with an increasingly diverse choice of services. Nationally, Asperindo has 367 members. In the past year, the number of fast delivery service businesses has increased quite rapidly.

"Specifically, we haven't mapped out in terms of the type of business and the focus on the service segment. What we saw in this one year was an increase in the number of Asperindo members by approximately 50 companies," Feriadi said when contacted by Kontan.co.id, Monday (23/8 ).

With attractive prospects, it's no wonder conglomerates are increasingly looking into the logistics business. The reason is, the fast delivery service business has proven to be able to make the performance of logistics issuers accelerate. PT Tri Adi Bersama (Anteraja), for example, contributed the most to PT Adi Sarana Armada Tbk (ASSA)'s revenue in Semester I-2021.

Anteraja's fast delivery business experienced significant growth by skyrocketing 269.9%. This segment contributed Rp 982.3 billion in revenue or 46.6% of ASSA's revenue, the issuer which is part of the Triputra Group owned by conglomerate T.P. Rahmat.

Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) economist Nailul Huda sees that there is an opportunity for conglomerates to continue to push into the logistics business. This is because this business will continue to rise along with the growth of the digital economy or e-commerce.

Now, in the midst of increasingly fierce competition, strong funding is needed. This is where the role of investors to enter is wide open.

"If venture capital companies or giant technology companies don't have the courage to enter, the presence of Indonesian conglomerates will bring in fresh funds to make logistics startup companies able to compete," said Huda.

In fact, it is not impossible for an e-commerce company that is experiencing a rapid increase in business to create its own logistics services. For example, as shown by Shopee Express or by joining Gojek and Tokopedia (GoTo).