Hitting Home Runs

Meutia Kumala, PT Home center Indonesia managing director, is helping people convert their homes into multifunctional spaces for work and play.

- Wendy Kay

Meutia Kumala is used to facing challenges. She tackles them head on, taking them in her stride to innovate and develop, which is why she didn’t falter when COVID-19 hit. Refusing to capitulate to the pandemic and plummeting sales, the Managing Director of Indonesia’s most popular furnishings store, PT Home Center Indonesia, relied instead on her sharply honed instincts to quickly reconfigure her business and turn around the mindset of her customers.

“Foot traffic in malls was declining,” she explains. “There was also a shift in spending priorities to more basic necessities, such as hygiene products. Furniture was not necessarily at the top of the list of things to buy.”

PT Home Center Indonesia is the country’s most popular furniture and lifestyle store, with 100 outlets stocking its Informa brand across 45 cities and 15 million customers passing through in just the past three years. There’s a range to suit every abode, with Informa catering to the medium and upper segment; Selma offering an affordable range for the medium segment, and Home Galleria, its luxury lifestyle range. Informa Custom Furniture provides custom-made furnishings, while Informa Electronics offers an extensive range of home electronics and appliances.