The competition of local manufacturers to ‘localize’ their brand and products has been escalated to the next level. After Evercoss confirmed its intention of establishing a factory for the sake of the company’s productivity, Polytron comes next in the line. The holder of the brand Polytron, PT. Hartono Istana Teknologi, has even confirmed that the factory, which would be located in Kudus, is expected to start producing this year.
In regard to the plan, The General Director of High Technology-Based Industry of the Ministry of Industry, Budi Darmadi, told Tempo, “Last December, it (Polytron) had had its trial production. The point is that the handphone industrialization keeps going on. The company looks to produce smartphones.”
Prior focusing on smartphones, the factory had previously produced other electronic devices like Video and Audio. It was since 2014 that it started producing Feature Phone. As SindoNews reported, Polytron’s Public Relations and Marketing Event Manager Santo Kadarusman stated that his company looks to produce 2,4 units of smartphones in a year at the 130.000 square maters-sized factory.
Kadarusman admitted that Polytron’s market in Indonesia has yet been as big as the big players like Samsung. Along with the growth of smartphone users in the country, Polytron now has 60% of its production gone to Android-based smartphones, while the rest 40% goes to feature phones. He and his team target to have a significant leap in 2015.
Some of Polytron’s flagships that can easily be found in Indonesia are Polytron W9500 and Polytron Crystal 4, both are still being produced in China and offered at around Rp 2 million per unit.
“For the time being, Polytron is still focusing on penetrating the market and educating people about Polytron’s products. This is necessary since people regard Polytron as producer of only electronic products all this time. They don’t notice that we also produce handphones,” Kadarusman continued.
Furthermore, he claimed that Polytron is pure local and the only original Indonesian brand. The company also commits on using local materials. In fact, 55% of the total materials used in its production come from local producers. Given the fact that Polytron’s production capacity is still upgradable up to 100.000 units per line, it is logical that the company will keep enhancing its production should the market demands go higher.
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