Putera Sampoerna, the Grandson of a Cigarette Boss Who Turned Around to the Palm Oil Business

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Then who exactly is Putera Sampoerna so that he can be rich like that?

Citing various sources, Putera Sampoerna is the son of Liem Swie Ling or Aga Sampoerna, son of Liem Seeng Tee, the founder of PT HM Sampoerna which is now well-known as one of the largest cigarette companies in Indonesia.

Even though he was born as the grandson of a rich man, it didn’t make him live a leisurely life. He remained diligent, even in terms of studying.

This can at least be known from the education he took. Putera is known to have studied at Diocesan Boy’s School Hong Kong, Carey Baptism Grammar School, Melbourne and the University of Houston.

Even though he was born as the son of a cigarette entrepreneur, he also did not indulge in asking his father and grandfather for work. Evidently after graduating from college, he did not immediately become involved in the family-owned cigarette company.

Armed with the knowledge he got at school, the man who likes the number 9 instead runs an oil palm plantation business owned by a Malaysian businessman along with his wife Katie.

Feeling that he had graduated from studying at the palm oil company, Putera then returned to Surabaya in the 1980s. It was then that he later joined his family’s PT HM Sampoerna.

Because of his expertise, the father then gave the trust to the Son to become Chief Executive Officer (CEO) company. Not wanting to waste the great trust that his father gave him, Putera works hard to improve the company’s performance.

One of them is to innovate so that the company’s products can be more salable in the market. He did innovation by creating low-tar and nicotine cigarette products.

One of the ways he pursued this desire was by recruiting foreign professionals. It was from this innovation that the A Mild and Dji Sam Soe cigarette brands rose.

Blessings from his efforts, HM Sampoerna shines even more. But that success did not necessarily make him complacent.

In the late 1980s, Putera expanded into other businesses. One of them is distribution.

Together with Djoko Susanto who is now known as the owner of the Alfamart Group, Putera founded a distribution company called PT Panamas. Putera, who at that time had become one of the conglomerates in Indonesia, held 70 percent of the company’s shares.

Meanwhile, Djoko was given the remaining 30 percent of the shares. The collaboration between Djoko and Putera has produced brilliant results.

Because of this success, he tried his luck in the supermarket business by developing a minimarket business network which later became known as the forerunner to the birth of Alfamart. Putera also tried his luck in the banking sector by establishing Bank Sampoerna.

The supermarket business that he developed together with Djoko managed to develop well. Its name later changed to Alfa Toko Gudang Rabat which later became the forerunner of the birth of the Alfamart retail network.

But that success was not followed by his banking business. Because then, the Bank Sampoerna he founded failed to develop.