PT Hanjaya Mandala Sampoerna Tbk, commonly known as Sampoerna (), is an Indonesian tobacco company owned by Philip Morris International. Sampoerna is the largest tobacco company in Indonesia. It produces clove cigarettes, otherwise locally known as ''

kretek Kretek () are unfiltered cigarettes of Indonesian origin, made with a blend of tobacco, cloves, and other flavors. The word "kretek" itself is an onomatopoetic term for the crackling sound of burning cloves. Partly due to favorable taxation ...

'' cigarettes. A typical brand is Sampoerna 'A' Mild, a filter cigarette in white paper.

History

In the

1930s File:1930s decade montage.png, From left, clockwise: Dorothea Lange's photo of the homeless Florence Thompson shows the effects of the Great Depression; due to extreme drought conditions, farms across the south-central United States become dry a ...

, Liem Seeng Tee (Lin Shengdi) adopted the Indonesian name Sampoerna (in

Dutch spelling Dutch orthography uses the Latin alphabet. The spelling system is issued by government decree and is compulsory for all government documentation and educational establishments. Legal basis In the Netherlands, the official spelling is regulated ...

, cf. sempurna) meaning "perfection" as his family name, thus becoming the company's namesake. Sampoerna began producing Dji Sam Soe in

1913 Events January * January 5 – First Balkan War: Battle of Lemnos (1913), Battle of Lemnos – Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it will not ven ...

in Soerabaia, East Java. Following Seeng Tee's death in 1956, his two daughters took over the running of the company, while his two sons ran separate tobacco-related businesses. The daughters shifted the company's focus toward white cigarettes, which nearly caused bankruptcy for Sampoerna. Youngest son Liem Swie Ling, who ran a kretek factory in Bali, returned to Surabaya in

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

to rescue the company. He shifted production back to hand-rolled Dji Sam Soe brand cigarettes. In

1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – "Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * Januar ...

, the company launched Sampoerna A Hijau. By the mid-1970s, the company was producing over 1 million cigarettes daily and had 1,200 staff. Swie Ling in the

1970s File:1970s decade montage.jpg, Clockwise from top left: U.S. President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office following the Watergate scandal in 1974; The United States was still involved in the Vietnam War i ...

began to hand over the running of the company to his second-eldest son, Liem Tien Pao, better known as Putera Sampoerna, who went on to modernize the company and expand its operations. In 19 October 1990, Sampoerna A Mild was launched. In May 2005, Philip Morris International, at that time a subsidiary of

Altria Altria Group, Inc. (previously known as Philip Morris Companies, Inc.) is an American corporation and one of the world's largest producers and marketers of tobacco, cigarettes and related products. It operates worldwide and is headquartered in ...

, completed the acquisition of 97.95% of the company. HM Sampoerna's current president is Paul Norman Janelle. At the end of May 2014, Sampoerna closed its Lumajang and Jember factories and laid off 4,900 employees due to declining sales of hand-rolled kretek cigarette as consumers moved to buy machine-made kretek cigarettes. In late April 2020, Sampoerna temporarily closed its factories in Rungkut, East Java after two of its labourers died of the COVID-19 pandemic. The factory's closure is unlikely to affect the company's total production as Sampoerna has cigarette factories in several other locations. In 2010, the company was criticized for its approach to "corporate social responsibility" efforts when Mount Merapi in Central Java began erupting. The disaster relief teams which "aim to augment efforts by a stretched Indonesian government to house, clothe and feed evacuees from the volcano," were criticized for "the flashy four-wheel drive vehicles," and "the cluster of eager staffers wearing natty red and black uniforms covered with company logos."

Notable people

* Michael Joseph Sampoerna

References

External links

* {{Philip Morris International Tobacco companies of Indonesia Companies based in Surabaya Companies established in 1913 Indonesian brands Sampoerna family Philip Morris International 1913 establishments in the Dutch East Indies 1990 initial public offerings 2005 mergers and acquisitions Companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange