medcom.id, Surabaya: It is inevitable that the cigarette industry, especially clove cigarette, has a great influence on Indonesia's economy. The clove industry is also a historical legacy rooting from our ancestors.
The legacy can be witnessed at the House of Sampoerna. The museum located at the Taman Sampoerna No. 6, Surabaya, East Java, takes us to see the journey of the oldest clove dynasty in Indonesia, owned by PT. HM Sampoerna, Tbk.
It was Liem Seeng Tee, a businessman who created the empire from scratch. The idea of producing clove cigarettes have emerged since Liem decided to quit his job from a small cigarette company in Lamongan, as he started his first small shop. Who knew that the small shop would be the initiator of a great company producing various well known cigarette brands, such as A Mild, Sampoerna Kretek, as well as the most legendary one, Dji Sam Soe.
In 1932, Liem bought a former orphanage building owned by the Dutch to be established as a small cigarette factory. To add some capital, he established the back room of the building as a movie theatre, once visited by a world class comedian, Charlie Chaplin.
"There was also something interesting, Mrs. Liem, during the times of looking after the shop, loved to save some cash placed in the bamboos of the small shop. So, a part of the capital was also obtained from that," said Achmad Alvian, a tourist guide at the House of Sampoerna museum when met with Metrotvnews.com.
At the museum, you can also see various kinds of cloves and tobacco as the main ingredients of a clove cigarette. Both spices are the characteristics of a cigarette. Each has different type, where the taste is also different for each.
Aside from the museum displaying the history of Sampoerna establishment, the building still stands to produce the Handmade Clove Cigarettes (SKT).
Sampoerna's business went down from generation to generation. But the difference is that the business fell into the second child up to the fourth generation, aside from the first child.
However, Sampoerna's stocks are now majority owned by Philip Morris International. "So now it is no longer family business, as the fourth generation is no longer involved in it," he concluded.
However, Sampoerna's stocks are now majority owned by Philip Morris International. "So now it is no longer family business, as the fourth generation is no longer involved in it," he concluded.
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