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SUCCESS STORY ,
DEWA MALEN WOOD CARVING Located in the village of Kemenuh in Sukowati, one of the sub-districts in Gianyar (Bali), Dewa Malen woodcarving business was initiated in 1994 by Dewa Ngaken Ketut Suarbawa, the owner. He was assisted by his wife, Sang Ayu Made Setiawati, both of whom were high school graduates. Determined to develop the business, they decided to open an art shop at home, which was later called “Dewa Malen” Wood Carving.
 After ten years of operation, the business keeps developing. They received more and more orders as clients realize the uniqueness and originality of their work. Orders which may come from either domestic or international tourists need to be satisfied. Although their business really had ‘hard’ time after Bali Bombing Tragedy in 2002, which hardly gave live to tourism industry in Bali, it experienced quick recovery. They need more capital for business expansion.
Mr. Suarbawa has been a loyal customer of BRI Unit Sukowati since 2004, though he had been BRI Unit Ubud’s customer before. He decided to move to BRI Unit Sukowati due to the distance—his village is closer to BRI Unit Sukowati than to BRI Unit Ubud. He said, “The closer the location, the faster the service.” When he started taking loan from BRI Unit Ubud in 1998, it was only IDR 20 million. At present, he is taking working capital loan from BRI Unit Sukowati as much as IDR 500 million—the biggest loan size ever in retail-KUPEDES scheme.
Until recently Mr. Suarbawa has employed 30 workers and five statue collectors, who are responsible for collecting statues from a number of locations famous for their statue production. The collected statues are then sold in his artshop.
On average, the monthly sale reaches IDR 400 million to IDR 500 million. Only on his artshop located in the village of Tengkulak are the statues sold. The buyers are mostly come from America, Australia, German, and Asian countries, like Japan, Korea, and China. To increase sales, “Dewa Malen” wood carving artshop works together with some tourism agencies like Pacto, KBA Tour, JBL Tours and Travel, Bali Harapan Utama Tour & Travel, Avi, Travindo, Asian Trail, Asia Collection, and Marin Tur., who will later take internacional visitors to the artshop.
Being asked about export opportunity, Mr. Suarbawa said that he is not exporting his statues, but he can help buyers to send big-size statues in cargo expedition. |
