Meet Budiarto Halim, president director, Erajaya

s come a long way from selling mobile phones with his brother-in-law in a small shop in the 1990s. Little did they know that the store was the launchpad for consumer electronics giant PT Erajaya Swasembada Tbk. Since then, Halim has been at the very forefront of the industry in Indonesia. He is currently president director at Erajaya.

In 2008, Budiarto led a major transformation of the company, which included the launch of the Erajaya Development and Assessment Center, which plays a critical role in the development of the business’ teams and future leaders. During that time, Budiarto also launched Eraplus, a new retail format focused on selling accessories as well as handsets. According to an article from Enterprise Asia, under Halim’s leadership, the business experienced “unprecedented growth” and in December 2011, it listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange. 

A fun fact. According to Enterprise Asia, Erajaya was the “the first Google Officiated AndroidNation store in the world, the largest Samsung Experience superstore in South East Asia as well as the largest Apple Premium Reseller store in Asia”. 

In April, the business released its latest financial statements, reporting a 65.4 per cent year-on-year increase from Rp 612 billion as of FY 2020. As of December 31, 2021, Erajaya had 1,218 retail outlets with 88 distribution points, as well as 66,000 resellers in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

“The pandemic condition did not dampen Erajaya from continuing to improve its performance to be better from year to year,” said Hasan Aula, Deputy President Director of PT Erajaya Swasembada Tbk in a statement.

Last year, Erafone and The Gioi Di Dong joined forces to create Era Blue, a new electronics company which just opened its first store in Jakarta. According to a statement from the company, it “revolutionises the consumer electronics retail industry” and “offers unrivalled product offering and [an] elevated consumer experience”.

Meanwhile, Erajaya has expanded beyond just electronics and now has subsidiaries and affiliates including beauty, activewear and food.