Gudang Garam (lit. 'salt warehouse') was founded on 26 June 1958 and it is salutary to reflect that one of the most successful tobacco companies in Indonesia today should have been started less than fifty years ago and by a man of such humble origins as Tjoa Ing Hwie.

In his late twenties, Ing Hwie got his big break when his uncle offered him a job working with tobacco and sauce at his kretek factory Cap 93. Cap 93 was one of the most famous kretek brands in East Java. Hard work and diligence was soon rewarded by promotion to Head of Tobacco and Sauce and eventually led to Ing Hwie becoming a company director.

Ing Hwie left Cap 93 in 1956 taking fifty employees with him. He immediately started buying land and raw materials in Kediri and soon after began producing his own klobot kretek which he marketed under the brand name Inghwie. Two years later Ing Hwie re-named and registered his company as Pabrik Rokok Tjap Gudang Garam and a legend was born.

The story behind the name "Gudang Garam" deserves a special mention. One night, Ing Hwie had a dream in which the old salt warehouse which stood across the way from Cap 93 featured prominently. Subsequently, Sarman, one of the original fifty employees who had followed Ing Hwie when he left Cap 93, advice Ing Hwie to put a picture of the warehouse on every packet of his kretek to secure good fortune. Ing Hwie thought this was a good idea and asked Sarman to design the logo.

Gudang Garam grow rapidly and by the end of 1958 it had five hundred employees producing over fifty million kretek annually. By 1966, after only eight years in production, Gudang Garam had grown to be the largest kretek factory in Indonesia with an annual production of 472 million sticks. By 1969, Gudang Garam was producing 864 million sticks a year and was indisputably the largest kretek producer in Indonesia.

In 1971, the status of the company became a Limited Liability Company (PT) and obtained Domestic Capital Investment facilities. The new status allowed PT Gudang Garam to become more progressive in terms of production quality, management and technology. Then, in 1979, Ing Hwie completely renovated Gudang Garam's production system, ordered thirty rolling machines and developed a new formula for his machine-made kretek. Despite being a relative latecomer to the game of kretek, Gudang Garam was now clearly the largest producer of kretek in Indonesia and one of the top ten largest cigarette manufacturers in the world.

Ing Hwie, passed away in 1985. He left wonderful memories to the whole employees of PT Gudang Garam. In this time, the cigarette industry was becoming more competitive that caused the company to work hard in order to maintain its growth and its employees' welfare the objectives of Mr. Surya Wonowidjojo.

In order to strengthen its capital structure and its financial position, PT Gudang Garam offered and sold a part of its shares to the public through the stock exchanges in Indonesia in 1990.

In 1991, PT Gudang Garam took a long-term strategic decision to diversify. In that year PT Gudang Garam developed an industrial paper business, by establishing PT Surya Pamenang that is also based in Kediri. Currently, 99% of PT Surya Pamenang's shares are owned by PT Gudang Garam.

Prior to this move, the company was reliant on imported materials for packaging, but the entry into this new business assured the constant provision of high quality domestic-sourced packaging material. Today, PT Surya Pamenang has grown beyond the service needs of its parent, PT Gudang Garam, supplying both the wider domestic and overseas export markets.