Tjintya Vagranty
IPMI International Business School
Amelia Naim Indrajaya
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Jogjakarta, located in Central Java Indonesia, is well-known for its Royal culture and “jamu” derived from herb spices. Promoting the concept of Royal treatment with high quality and natural based personal care products paired with the drive to improve the welfare of local communities inspired Mr. Fajar Achmad to establish Keraton Care in 2014.
Starting from a marketing background Mr. Fajar Achmad and his partner Mr. Ariyadi Yunianto, a senior pharmacist, recognized that many personal care products being sold in the marketplace were not promoting aspects of health, environment, or community responsibility. They then envisioned that there was a business opportunity and began due diligence on customer needs. They also started seeking the engagement of the local community to be their business partner because the supply of premium quality herbs is critical in achieving the high standard of Keraton Care products.
Today, Keraton Care products are divided into four categories: Face, Body, Special and Feminine. The tag line of 'Royal treatment, high quality and back to nature' has gained a positive response from the market and consequently the sales are also increasing substantially year by year. To cope with the drastic growth of the herbs they use, Keraton Care supported the farmers with high quality seeds, technology, equipments and financial needs to ensure that the supply of raw materials is not disrupted.
Water use in cleaning the herbs and the processing equipment will be treated and discharged to irrigate the farm. No chemicals are added to the water for cleaning. Therefore the water will not pollute the environment.
Family value and economy factor had inspired Mr. Fajar & Mr. Ari to raise their business embedded with social responsibility. They grew up in a small village and understand the living condition of the surrounding, and this has inspired them to improve the welfare of the community.
As faculty members, they understand the long term impact of global warming and are determined to participate in climate change programs such as planting more trees, applying 3R (Reduce, Re-use, and Recycle), producing no hazardous waste to contaminate the environment, converting waste to added value products, and saving energy by reducing machinery equipment.
Keraton Care's attribute of 'Royal treatment and back to nature' has attracted the young professional women who are concerned with the use of chemicals in their personal care products. This competitive advantage has allowed Keraton Care products to grow at a tremendous rate which in turn brings good return to the shareholders. As the business grows, more jobs will be created, farmers will generate more income and thus improve the well-being and reduce social inequality.
The natural herbs and no other chemical additives added in the product formulation will definitely not pollute the water and environment. The water with no chemicals added in the cleaning process will also be reused to irrigate the farm.
Keraton Care has generated profit since its establishment in 2014. Its competitive advantage and branding has successfully entered into market, and has brought a fast return on this low initial investment.
The long term strategy is to increase the capacity of production, expand the geography coverage in local markets, and strengthen the distribution supply chain as this is critical to the success of retail business.
Keraton Care has developed its product distribution through online sales, distributor or reseller and directly sold to local SPAs. The idea of using “Keraton” as its brand, is to promote heritage of Jogjakarta Palace, that is famous for herb personal care to the princess. Keraton Care brand will create a gentility feeling to its customer by applying this product in their routine body treatment. Healthy Culture and Heritage is the strong branding message for Keraton Care products.
Keraton Care has embedded its business to help society and alleviate poverty by buying the herb ingredients from local poor farmers and producing good quality and environment friendly products
Mr. Fajar and Mr. Ari have committed to building sustainable business that will help the community to flourish, develop more products using food & beverage waste, educating customer of health concerns and using herbal spice as a main material.
Having intense passion for a flourishing society, Mr. Fajar and Mr. Ari welcome students and educational institutions to share the product knowledge, reuse food waste and brief the process of production, at the same time encouraging environment awareness and healthy products.
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