Mario Santoso
IPMI International Business School
Amelia Naim Indrajaya
Keep this story going! Share below!
Established in 2005, PT. Cisarua Mountain Dairy Tbk (well known as “Cimory” or the “Company”) now is a leading producer of Premium Dairy and Premium Consumer Foods products in Indonesia with a strong track record of product innovations. The premium Dairy product portfolio consists of yogurt and milk products, marketed under the “Cimory” brand. The Premium Consumer Foods products feature a range of ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat products, such as sausages, chicken nuggets, luncheon meat, and meatballs sold under the “Kanzler” brands.
Looking back at Cimory’s journey, the company was first founded with a social mission in mind, where the founder (Mr. Bambang Sutantio) was highly passionate about helping farmers in Cisarua Bogor to sell their fresh milk. Based on this awareness, Cimory then first introduced milk products such as pasteurized milk and yogurt with milk purchased from these farmers. Cimory places great importance not only on growing the business but also to increase the company’s positive contribution to the environment and social impact, especially for the future. This need and compassion to help others in the community also drove the initiation of the Miss Cimory program in 2013.
This program has become a new business model in the company and one of the most important distribution channels (so-called Exclusive Distribution Channel) for Cimory besides Modern Trade and General Trade across the Indonesian archipelago. Miss Cimory, comprising over 4000 women salesforce, sells Cimory’s products directly to more than 200.000 households weekly and as of the full year 2021 Miss Cimory contributed around 10% of the total net sales.
Miss Cimory program was officially established in 2013 and became an exclusive distribution channel. Initially, the target to become a Miss Cimory was housewives who had middle-low income and wanted to look for extra income to support family and later extended to all women. Miss Cimory sells nutritious and healthy Cimory’s products directly and builds rapport as well as foster personal trust with the customers. Miss Cimory has 3 main missions which are:
1. Firstly providing the best nutrition for Indonesians through high-quality products from Cimory, directly delivered to their homes.
2. Secondly, in helping Indonesian women namely housewives become empowered and financially independent. Thus, they will be able to improve their income and quality of life.
3. Lastly, supporting Indonesia’s government program which looks to develop and empower a skillful and intelligent society especially women.
Newly recruited Miss Cimory agents receive comprehensive training monthly to become microentrepreneurs and ambassadors of the Company's products to their local communities. Sometimes, Cimory also invites a motivator to motivate the agents to keep productive. New agents also receive Miss Cimory uniforms and cooler bags to store and carry Cimory products. In 2021, Cimory has empowered around 4000 women to become Miss Cimory and has around 130 Miss Cimory centers located around Java, Bali, and Sumatra islands. Each of the centers is equipped with cold storage facilities, ensuring the freshness and quality of the products. Due to many positive responses and fans, the number keeps growing until now (Miss Cimory Ladies increased by 20% in 2021) and Cimory has a dedicated department to handle this program.
Sales agents are compensated based on their bi-weekly sales performance, generating additional income for their families that helps improve their livelihoods. Every year, the highly anticipated Miss Cimory Award event is held to recognize Miss Cimory agents with exceptional performance and in order to motivate others to keep improving their performance. In 2021, 282 Miss Cimory agents were recognized for their outstanding performance and one agent was named as the best agent for the year.
One of the biggest challenges of the program is the recruitment that the candidates come from different backgrounds, knowledge, and education. With these differences, Cimory needs extra effort to make them have the same standard competency (ie. product knowledge, customer experience) in dealing with customers.
Miss Cimory exists to reach markets that Modern Trade and General Trade cannot reach or access as well as to build good rapport and trust among customers. They can visit and serve roughly 90 houses per week per sales (2021 data).
This innovative business model of Miss Cimory supports some of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) such as SDG no. 1 “No Poverty”, no.3 “Good Health”, and no. 5 “Gender Equality”. Besides, Cimory’s nutritious products are produced in responsible ways as aligned with SDG no 6. “Clean Water and Sanitation”, no. 7 “Affordable and Clean Energy” and no. 12 “Responsible Consumption and Production”
“In defining our sustainability priorities, we focus on areas where Cimory can create the biggest impact, which, at the same time, can support the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).” Farell Sutantio -President Director.
Miss Cimory program was born from the initiative of the owner, Mr. Bambang Sutantio, in order to help farmers in Cisarua Bogor to sell their fresh milk. He has seen many families still living under the minimum living standards, and Cimory could provide them with the tools to upskill and improve their living standards.
Focused on women empowerment for Indonesian housewives, Cimory believes the Miss Cimory Program could be a solution to resolve the vicious circle of poverty. Miss Cimory began with a vision to empower low to medium-income women to become prosperous and to help combat malnutrition cases in Indonesia through wider access to healthy, protein-based foods.
“I only want to produce food and beverage products that I believe are good to be consumed by my own family.” Mr. Bambang Sutantio -Founder of Cimory.
In conclusion, Miss Cimory program is very successful and has given impacted positively the business, Indonesian local society, and the environment. Since its establishment in 2013, Miss Cimory, has empowered thousands of low to medium-income women to become Cimory’s sales agents, while also delivering considerable contribution to Cimory’s financial performance. Despite experiencing mobility restrictions during the pandemic, Miss Cimory continued to grow and prosper. In 2021 alone, close to 1,500 women were recruited as new agents. By the end of the year, Miss Cimory comprised 4,006 sales agents operating through 131 Miss Cimory centers located in Java, Bali, and Sumatra as well as contributed around 10% (IDR 400 bio) of the company’s total net sales.
Direct impacts of the programs contribute to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):
- SDG no. 1 “No Poverty”
o Increase the engagement and empowerment of local communities in Cimory’s value chain as a sales agent (Miss Cimory) and fresh milk suppliers in order to create economic resources for Cimory and the communities and to improve the family's standard of living.
- SDG no. 3 “Good Health”
o Strong commitment from Cimory to create healthy-nutritious products with the highest quality to ensure health and well-being for customers as well as promote healthy lifestyles.
- SDG no. 5 “Gender Equality”
o Empower low to medium-income women as members of Cimory’s exclusive, direct-to-consumer distribution channel, Miss Cimory.
o Recruitment of female farmers through the 1,000 Srikandi Peternak Indonesia Movement
Cimory’s nutritious products are produced responsibly ways. Therefore, Indirect impacts are embedded in the offered products that Miss Cimory cells and contribute to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):
- SDG no. 6 “Clean Water and Sanitation”
o Execute the concept of water conservation through 3R (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle) in all Cimory’s factories.
o Intensify rainwater harvesting practices for Cimory utility water usage.
o Reuse of steam condensate as boiler feedwater.
o Recycle effluent from wastewater treatment plants for utility water.
- SDG no. 7 “Affordable and Clean Energy”
o Solar panel installation in production plants.
o Conversion of Freon chillers to liquid NH3-based chillers
o Installation of solar cells for plant lighting.
o Convert electrical chillers to the absorption chiller system.
o LED lighting in all plant locations.
- SDG no. 12 “Responsible Consumption and Production”
o Use more environmentally friendly packaging for all new products
o Use lighter and thinner plastic materials for bottle packaging, pouch caps, and secondary packaging.
o Use of recycled plastic pallets for operation and distribution activities.
o Support plastic waste collection and recycling activities.
Since its launch in 2013, the Miss Cimory program has grown to become an exclusive, direct-to-consumer distribution channel for the Company, generating 10% of the Company’s total net sales in 2021. The Covid-19 pandemic has had mixed effects on the Company’s channel distribution. On the one hand, the lockdown policy and mobility restrictions of Miss Cimory agents and Cimory employees had generated a significant impact on the recruitment of Miss Cimory agents and new customers during this period. The closing of busy locations, such as schools and offices created a considerable challenge to Miss Cimory’s sales performance, given that Miss Cimory agents generally target these locations.
But on the other hand, the implementation of these mobility restrictions started changing the habits of the consumers. Consumers now prefer to have their products delivered directly to their homes, and Cimory sees an opportunity that this could be supported by the Miss Cimory channel. In response to this situation, Cimory introduced an additional digital training program to the Miss Cimory agents, so that the agents can utilize popular digital platforms, such as Instagram and Whatsapp, to virtually interact with consumers and generate sales. Even during the pandemic, Cimory continued to expand Miss Cimory network by adding new agents and opening new areas. In total, around 1.500 new agents were recruited and 30 new Miss Cimory centers were opened in 2021 alone. By the end of the year, Miss Cimory comprised 4,006 sales agents operating through 131 Miss Cimory Centres located in Java, Bali, and Sumatra.
Cimory name it as an exclusive distribution channel because this program has become so important for expansion strategy that can fill the gap that could not be reached by using Modern Trade and General Trade channels.
Cimory’s commitment to creating the Miss Cimory program remains sustainable by the establishment of 131 Cimory centers spread all across Java, Bali, and Sumatera Island. Now, there are over 4,000 women that have joined the Miss Cimory program. Cimory Centre has played a huge role in the development of its members because in this center Miss Cimory will be able to share their experiences and nurture each other. To them, the Cimory center has become their second home. Most of them felt the benefits of having the program such as extra income to support family, go on hajj, pay children’s school fees, improve healthy lifestyle as well as influence others, become more self-reliant, and get more knowledge from training and experience.
Example of a testimonial from Miss Cimory
Ibu Indri Setia Ningsih, a housewife from Bandung, West Java has been a Miss Cimory agent since 2014 to help support her family’s finances. “I never thought of becoming a sales agent before, but I wanted to take part in improving the livelihood of my family. During my first year, I had to face many challenges. Gradually, I learned about the various benefits of protein intake for our health. This helped improved my confidence when interacting with consumers, resulting in higher sales performance.” “Thanks to Miss Cimory, I can now earn extra income without having to sacrifice my responsibilities as a housewife. When there is a will, there’s a way”, Ibu Indri concluded.
Lastly, for the environment, the program does not really give direct benefit but the Cimory’s products are produced in responsible ways considering the sustainability program as well as supporting United Nation’s SDG which contributes positively to the environmental benefits. The real contribution came from activities such as:
o Water conservation through 3R (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle) in all Cimory’s factories ie. Intensify rainwater harvesting practices for Cimory utility water usage, reuse of steam condensate as boiler feedwater, and recycle effluent from wastewater treatment plants for utility water (11% reduction).
o Solar panel installation in production plants.
o Conversion of Freon chillers to liquid NH3-based chillers.
o Installation of solar cells for plant lighting.
o Convert electrical chillers to absorption chiller systems (17% saving).
o LED lighting in all plant locations and operational hours.
o Use biodiesel, electricity forklift (Co2 reduction), and boiler gas (reduce oil dependency).
o Use more environmentally friendly packaging for all new products.
o Use lighter and thinner plastic materials for bottle packaging, pouch caps, and secondary packaging.
o Use of recycled plastic pallets for operation and distribution activities (20% reduction of plastic usage).
o Support plastic waste collection and recycling activities.
Get stories of positive business innovations from around the world delivered right to your inbox.
Ms. Dinar Primasari, Corporate Secretary Manager
Ms. Dinar Primasari, Corporate Secretary Manager
PT Cisarua Mountain Dairy Tbk (“Cimory” or the “Company”) is a leading producer of Premium Dairy and Premium Consumer Foods products in Indonesia. Established in 2005, Cimory is categorized as a creator in the dairy and consumer foods product categories, with a strong track record of product innovations. Cimory Premium Dairy's product portfolio consists of yogurt and milk products, marketed under the “Cimory” brand. Cimory Premium Consumer Foods products feature a range of ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat products, such as sausages, chicken nuggets, luncheon meat, and meatballs. These products are sold under the “Kanzler” brands.