Lotte Mart, the supermarket unit of South Korean conglomerate Lotte, will open its first small-sized supermarket in Jakarta on Thursday, the company said Wednesday.

The opening of the 1,300-square-meter Lotte Mart “Kemang” branch, located on the ground floor of Amaris Hotel, comes six years after the company started running large-scale stores in Indonesia.

The store is about 20-30 percent the size of an ordinary Lotte Mart and will display 10,000 items. About two-thirds of these items will be high-end groceries such as imported cheese, cooking oil, organic vegetables and premium beef. The target customers will be middle- and upper-class citizens, according to Lotte Mart.

“We have established a vast network in Indonesia and this will be a good opportunity to make the most of our know-how in management and logistics,” said Kim Young-kyun, a Lotte Mart official. “We are considering opening additional outlets in Jakarta and other cities in the near future.”

According to Lotte, the Indonesian retail market is ripe with business opportunities, with the sector posting double-digit growth rates over the past few years.

Lotte Mart currently runs 37 supermarkets there that generated a total of 1.07 trillion won ($1 billion) in sales last year.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)