|
 |
The Journey Begins
The Journey Begins
The story of Sampoerna begins in 1898 in the Fujian Chinese village
of Anxi.
It was in the late spring of that year that Liem Tioe bought passage
on a cargo sail
boat heading south to the Indian Ocean for himself and his two young
children, a girl
aged six and a boy aged five. Only the three of them boarded the
ship bound for
Indonesia because the mother of the two children, Tan Sie Nio, had
tragically passed
away the previous winter. It was her death that seemed to have prompted
Liem Tioe
to seek a milder climate, more promising working conditions, and
a new life for his
young family. On its voyage south, the boat stopped briefly at the
... continue
Back to top
The Beginnings
of the Business & Family
The Beginnings
of the Business & Family
The young Seeng Tee worked solidly on the trains for 18 months without
a day off.
Although the work was physically demanding, it enabled him to save
enough money
to buy a second-hand bicycle. This was a significant purchase for
the young Seeng
Tee because it gave him the mode of transport he needed to start
a new business
plying charcoal up and down the streets of Surabaya. During his
... continue
Back to top
Tremendous
Opportunity
Tremendous Opportunity
Then a tremendous opportunity presented itself in early 1916. Seeng
Tee was
given the opportunity to purchase a large quantity of various blends
of tobacco from
a tobacco trader who had gone bankrupt. The one seemingly insurmountable
condition
of the purchase was that cash settlement had to be made by the end
of the next day.
Dejectedly, Seeng Tee returned to the stall that evening to tell
his wife about the lost
opportunity. It was simply impossible to finance a purchase of that
magnitude in the
time allowed by the Bankruptcy Commission. After an extended discussion
with Tjiang
Nio, however, she agreed that this was an opportunity that could
not be missed. She
fetched a small stool from the back of the stall and used it to
reach ... continue
Back to top
The Formal Beginnings of Sampoerna
The Formal Beginnings of Sampoerna
|
|
 |
|
By 1913, Seeng Tee and Tjiang Nio’s small
business had
grown to the point where it was informally incorporated
under the name Handel Maatschappij Liem Seeng Tee,
which evolved into Handel Maatschappij Sampoerna a short
time later. After World War II, the company’s name was
changed again, this time to PT Hanjaya Mandala Sampoerna,
substituting the Indonesian language for the original Dutch
but keeping the pre-War initials, HM. For Seeng Tee, it was
important his products catered to all levels of the population,
so in addition ... continue
Back to top |
Taman Sampoerna
Taman Sampoerna
|
|
|
Seeng Tee and Tjiang Nio’s house under
the railroad bridge which
had been razed by fire and rebuilt eventually had a third
storey
added to accommodate the addition of two daughters to the
family, Sien, born in 1921, and Hwee, born in 1926. The family
remained in this house until 1927 when a house and small ware-
house were purchased for cash on Jalan Ngaglik No. 9 which
was
then located on the very outskirts of Surabaya. It was at
the Jalan
Ngaglik house and warehouse that Seeng Tee spent much of his
time testing different blends and combinations of ... continue
Back to top
|
|
 |
Sampoerna Theatre
|
|
