BANDUNG - Unexpected inspiration can actually lead someone to create a new and successful business. This was experienced by Adang, a Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) actor in Bandung, who successfully optimized bamboo into various types of crafts and processed food products and is famous internationally.

Adang admitted that the inspiration came one night on April 30, 2011, when he was sitting cross-legged in a mosque. He saw bamboo slats in the area of ​​the place of worship. The next day when he watched an orchestra broadcast on television, a violin caught his attention. At the same time, it became the answer to last night's question.

"Yes, I will make a bamboo violin," although Adang Muhidin cannot play a musical instrument at all.

The unexpected inspiration turned out to lead him to the gate of a new business, the bamboo craft business brought him out of the difficult times of bankruptcy of his old businesses. It became an important point in the life of Adang and his family.

With his own money, Adang began to learn about bamboo, conducting a series of research and experiments as best he could. "I once walked to Bandung City to learn about bamboo," said Adang at his residence, Cimareme Village, Ngamprah, West Bandung Regency.

Around 2013, Adang succeeded in making his first bamboo violin, followed by other musical instruments such as guitar and bass. Initially, the bamboo, said Adang, was the result of asking from garden to garden. His persistence and work began to be known, until he and his team were invited to a music festival in Jakarta. At first, Adang felt inferior. "But it turned out that our booth was filled with visitors," said Adang half-surprised.

From there, his first bamboo violin was bought by a Japanese person for Rp3.5 million. His bamboo guitar also turned out to sell for Rp4 million. Adang returned home with Rp7.5 million from Jakarta, which was then used as an injection of business capital. Virage Awie, which was initially pioneered by Adang alone with a partner, can now become a sustainable business field for hundreds of other people.

"The number of people who work reaches 200 people, not all of them survive. Now there are 4 people who are the owners of Virage Awie with a core team of 7 people. The other team has 47 people, not to mention the special culinary women's business group that reaches 30 people. Most are single parents. There are also 35 people with disabilities who have been trained, and now there are 8 people working here," explained Adang.

Regarding product marketing, said Adang, enthusiasts for Virage Awie's bamboo products come not only from within the country but also abroad. Even for musical instruments, he said, 90% of buyers come from abroad, some of which are Japan, India, Romania, Germany, England, Singapore, and Malaysia.

"We are often invited to exhibit by BRI abroad, the last one was in Singapore. From that exhibition we met the buyers," he said.

It can be said that one of Virage Awie's leading products is indeed musical instruments. Currently, the price of musical instruments has increased along with the development of their quality. Prices for guitars, for example, start from IDR 14 million to IDR 25 million. While bamboo drums can reach IDR 50 million.

"We produce exclusively, we only sell limited guitars of only 36 guitars a year. 90% of the buyers are from abroad. Culinary products are the newest, starting to be marketed in 2022-2023. For other bamboo crafts such as watches, most of the enthusiasts are from within the country," said Adang.

Adang hopes that his business can continue to grow like rows of bamboo in gardens that provide coolness, shade and benefits for many people. "Don't forget to help others. Hopefully with Virage Awie we can help others, not too ambitious," he added.

Continues to Grow Thanks to Empowerment from BRI

Adang admitted that his business journey has grown even more when he received support from BRI. Virage Awi, the name of Adang's bamboo craft business, is known to be one of BRI's fostered business clusters. "That year I met BRI, finally our musical instruments had HAKI (Intellectual Property Rights)," he said.

In addition, at the beginning of his pioneering, he also applied for business funding through the People's Business Credit (KUR). Apart from that, Virage Awi received assistance in the provision of production equipment. With the help of production equipment, he admitted that he could help the craftsmen he mentored to be able to produce more bamboo processed products.

Virage Awi's bamboo crafts continue to develop, such as not only producing musical instruments, but also expanding into other crafts such as bamboo watches, bamboo cutlery, bamboo drinking containers, bamboo speakers, building construction, and culinary. Not only focusing on the production aspect, Virage Awi is now an academy that focuses on community empowerment in the form of business training, including for the disabled.

The business groups include the Tanginas Creative Women's Group, which produces culinary products made from bamboo shoots, for example, processed into bamboo shoot mustofa, bamboo shoot simping, semprong, dumplings and bamboo shoot brownies. There is also the Motekar Creative Women's Group which produces bamboo leaf crackers. In addition, the Disabled Craft Business Group.

On a separate occasion, BRI Micro Business Director Supari revealed that the empowerment of Business Clusters is the empowerment of business groups that are formed based on similar businesses in one area, so that familiarity and togetherness are created in improving and developing the businesses of its members.

Until the end of July 2024, BRI recorded that it had 31,488 business clusters that were members of the Klasterku Hidupku program. BRI has also held 2,184 trainings in the Klasterku Hidupku program.

Supari added that the Klasterku program is one form of strategy that prioritizes empowerment. "In general, BRI's micro business strategy in 2024 will focus on empowerment at the forefront of financing. BRI as a bank committed to MSMEs has an empowerment framework starting from the basic phase, integration, to interconnection," said Supari. (***)