The Early Years

Bentoel’s Journey trace back to early 1930s when Ong Hok Liong, who had earned some expertises from his fathers’s tobacco trading company, decided to open his own clove cigarette business. Partnering with his wife, Liem Kwie Nio, Ong started a small cigarette home industry – The Strootjes Fabriek Ong Hok Liong.

Ong’s own savoir-faire in tobacco manufacturing complemented his wife’s management skills had driven the growth of the business that later in 1951 became company PT Perusahaan Rokok Tjap Bentoel.

By late 1960s, Bentoel paved its way to become a modern cigarette manufacturer by introducing filtered machine-rolled cigarette to the market. A method that was later adopted by other manufacturers.

In the next two decades, Bentoel grew rapidly and placed itself at the forefront of the domestic tobacco industry.

In a bid to expand its business, Bentoel started to cooperate with US-based white cigarette producer Phillip Morris Inc. Bentoel gained its trust to serve as the sole manufacturer and distributor of Philip Morris’ world-renowned Marlboro brand.

However, the road had not always been smoothly paved for the company as consecutive currency depreciations in the late 1980s led to financial difficulties. Just before the country’s monetary crisis happened, the company had invested a significant amount on a more sophisticated manufacturing system, which featured automatic primary and secondary machines and new printing machines.

Such unpredicted tribulation prompted burdening debts that in 1991 local credit company Rajawali group took over to restructure both the financial condition as well as the management of the company.

Bentoel Today

Rajawali Group was asigned by major local creditors to take over the management of Bentoel and to assist in its debt restructuring process in 1991. The reins of management was passed to more competent professionals, and new executives were brought in to fill key posts as Bentoel transformed itselfs into a modern cooperation from a family enterprise.

The first job of the new management team was to alleviate the pressures of Bentoel’s debt to local and foreign creditors, and to resolve the company’s financial problem. With the succesfully restructuring of the company’s debt in 1995 and 1997, the management of Bentoel was able to concentrate fully in business development and structural reform.

In 1996, Bentoel repositioned itself in the low tar and nicotine (LTLN) market with the introduction of Star Mild cigaretted brand. The company has since introduced several other brands in this segment, including Bentoel Mild (1999), Country (1999), X Mild and Country Light (2004) and Club Mild (2006).

Bentoel entered the white cigarette segment in 1984 when Philip Morris Inc. penetrated the Indonesians market and entrusted Bentoel to produce and distribute the famous Marlboro Cigarette brand. From 1984 to 1988, Bentoel was the sole licensed producer and distributor of Philip Morris Indonesia’s products, a testament to Bentoel’s position as a world-class tobacco manufacturer. At the end 1988, Philip Morris established its own manufacturing entity, PT Philip Morris Indonesia (PMI), and began manufacturing its own cigarettes. Bentoel retained the exclusive distribution right for PMI’s tobacco products, this lasted until February 2005.

Bentoel has now been growing to become a respected company in Indonesia. Bentoel’s balanced portfolio of brand management -- either in hand rolled clove cigarette (Sejati, Rawit, Prinsip), machine rolled clove cigarettes (Bentoel Biru, Inter Biru, Star Mild, Bentoel Mild, X Mild, dan Club Mild), or White cigarette (Country) – has prepared Bentoel to be able to respond to domestic market challenges.

As the door to the regional market opens wider, Bentoel also seeks opportunities to expand its exports and remains optimistic to be able to serve current and future international market demand.