History of Aqua, Founded by Tirto Utomo and Purchased by Danone France

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – PT Aqua Golden Mississippi is a company that holds the Aqua brand. The company is listed as the largest bottled mineral water producer in Indonesia in terms of market share.

Aqua History until very popular this cannot be separated from Tirto Utomo. He is an Indonesian entrepreneur who first introduced bottled water in Indonesia.

In the 1970s, bottled white or fresh water drinks were considered uncommon. Bottling bottled water at that time was still considered a strange thing and difficult to accept.

Consumption water is generally boiled groundwater, not bottled water. Meanwhile, bottled water comes from sterilized water.

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Reporting from the official website of Aqua, Wednesday (4/11/2020), Tirto Utomo started a bottled mineral water business in 1973 by establishing a factory in Pondok Ungu Bekasi.

A year later, the company introduced the Aqua brand in a 950 ml glass bottle from its factory in Bekasi. Bottled water it sells for IDR 75 per bottle.

This bottled water product is finding momentum at the right time. In that period of the 1970s, many foreign contractor workers from Hyundai, South Korea worked on the Jagorawi toll road project.

These foreign workers are among Aqua’s first customers. Drinking habits bottled water in the middle of the project, it seemed to be transmitted to local workers. Word of mouth because of its practicality, Aqua then began to be accepted in society.

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As its products expanded in the country, in 1984 Aqua then built a second factory in Pandaan Malang to target market share in East Java. In 1985, Aqua also began introducing the smaller, 220 ml plastic cup.

Acquired Danone France

Then in 1998, a French multinational company, Danone, through Danone Asia Holding Pte, acquired a majority stake PT Aqua Golden Mississippi. Tirto Utomo himself still holds shares in Aqua through PT Tirta Investama.

Along with the acquisition, Aqua’s packaging began to change and the Danone label began to be embedded in Aqua’s packaging.

PT Aqua Golden Mississippi was previously listed as a public company on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX). But then the company decided to exit the stock (delisting) in 2011.

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The company is even willing to pay Rp 500,000 for shares held by the public or the public per share so that it is no longer a public company.

Previously, calls for a boycott of French products were being echoed in several countries, including Indonesia. The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) is one of the parties that appealed to Indonesian Muslims not to buy products from France.

In Indonesia, there are various kinds of products originating from the country under Emmanuel Macron’s leadership, one of which is the Aqua packaging product from Danone.

As is well known, Danone is a multinational food producer company headquartered in Paris, France.

However, Danone Indonesia’s Corporate Communications Director, Arif Mujahidin, said that some of the products sold in Indonesia today, such as Aqua and SGM, are purely the result of domestic development.

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“Our products, such as SGM and Aqua, are products developed and produced in Indonesia by Indonesian workers for Indonesian consumers,” said Arif in a written statement.

Furthermore, Arif said Aqua had been present in Indonesia since 1973. In fact, SGM had appeared much longer than that, namely in 1965.

“Our company has no political affiliation and matters outside our business,” he said.

Arif also welcomed the government’s move not to boycott French products, like other countries.

“We will continue our commitment to serve the needs of nutrition and healthy hydration through the millions of traders who sell our products in Indonesia and are prepared by nearly 15,000 of our employees throughout Indonesia,” he said.

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