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Developments of Foodservice in Indonesia by Gil D!Harcour, Associate member of FCSI APD

When I first landed in Indonesia in 1994 with the mission to run an upscale outlet catering for the jet set

in Jakarta, I would have never imagined of course that 16 years later I would still be around, getting stuck

daily in road traffic chaos and meeting restaurant investors trying to convince them over and over that

foodservice is not simply a hobby but actually a real profession with passionate people.

In the 80s, the Indonesian well-connected segment of the society which benefited from 30 years of

Soeharto dictatorship, cronyism and nepotism, were still holding the keys for any type of investment in

every sector and especially retail business. This is during that time of economic boom and glory days that

indonesians started buying foreign franchises and their values cherished by the wealthy indonesians

studying in US. Planet Hollywood, Hard Rock, Tonys Romas and myriad of fast food chains were

flocking onto the streets of Jakarta promoting American lifestyle and eating habits. The prestige of

handling those foreign brands would give to the local investors the edge and boost their ego. During these

pre crisis time, restaurant owners could hire expatriate skills both in the hospitality and restaurant

industry and with a good capital on hand, good connections and favorable sweetheart deals with the

banking sector, the upper class will grab the best locations, build the biggest malls. During this time of

feudalism, what was happening on the top layer of the political scene was also depicted on the

foodservice scene, restaurant owners were the big bosses, their names were on the front page of

magazines and restaurant were living through the eyes of the owners, chefs and managers were simply

used as servants and foodservice consultants the temporary envoys of those foreign franchisors.

Today, as the world is witnessing Indonesia reaping the success of a stabilized political and smooth but

long transition between autocratic rules and democracy, the domestic consumption is the main engine of

growth of the country and is accounting for more than 70% for the economy and despite a deceleration of

growth in 2008 due to the ongoing world crisis, fuel prices hike in may 2008, the eating out culture

remain very strong and is boosting the investment in the retail and particularly in the restaurant industry.

Regional cuisines have received the favor of the public as the purchasing power started to be affected by

the rising cost of living and local entrepreneurs gave birth to new brands and franchised them. This

formidable market size , the fourth biggest in the world, kept on attracting foreign brands and the

shopping mall culture expands till the most populated cities of Indonesia such as Surabaya , Medan ,

etc

While the term of foodservice has not yet been commonly used, owning a restaurant or a bar or a food

counter seem fashionable whether you are a celebrity, a politician or a young US graduate such as Ronald

Wihardjo, 30 years old who just bought the rights to develop this Californian venture famous for its

oversized sushi, Cal-Roll Factory and hired the services of a foodservice consultant to assist him in


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We Share, We Support, We Inspire

Contd from page before

opening the first outlet in Jakarta. Ronald belongs to this new race of entrepreneurs, overseas educated

just want to it right and learn the basics, he takes decisions not based on his ego but based on what the

customer would want and most importantly he promises to be on the floor and will personally prepare

the sauce. Nurturing those type of new restaurant investors and guiding them in entering the foodservice

industry is what should drive all of us , foodservice consultants to stay in a developing country like

Indonesia. Pragmatism and professionalism should gradually replace feudalism, egocentricity and

eccentricity and no matter if the majority of the investment in the restaurant industry is still tainted with

malpractice, collusion between owners representative and suppliers, informal or improvised consultants

who take advantage of nave investors in urge of spending money, consistency in delivering the

philosophy of FCSI will certainly pay off one day.

As we all learn in the universal school of marketing, one should adapt to the local culture and re-adjust

his way of thinking in order to cater to the locals, this is more than ever true and to be applied in

Indonesia. The human resources in Indonesia is open minded and very receptive to knowledge, we

should thus embark fully in conveying the message of professionalism in the foodservice industry in the

most humble way, remembering that the client is the King and remembering that we should make him

feel he will still remain the King.

Indonesian Satay Rice cakes served on New Year*s Day

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