The Djarum Tobacco Company of Indonesia was founded in 1951 by Oei Wie Gwan. Gwan had purchased a small kretek (clove cigarette) manufacturing company located in Kudus, a Central Javanese town, and decided to start mass marketing the hand-rolled cigarettes (SKTs) that so many small local plants produced. After increasing success, the company decided to expand to include machine-made kreteks (sigaret kretek mesins or SKMs) and this decision made Djarum one of the most notable industrial companies in Indonesia.

In addition to its successes, Djarum also experienced a number of setbacks that threatened to shut the company down. In 1963 the factory was burned down in a fire and the company only survived because of the loyalty of its employees and some critical leadership decisions. After buying new machinery from Europe the company sent many of its employees to be trained in Germany and Great Britain to effectively operate the equipment and new methods of manufacturing SKMs were introduced.

While first marketing the SKMs, Djarum also introduced the Djarum Filter Special, Djarum Filter Deluxe, and Djarum Filter King Size in 1976. In 1981 they were followed by the Djarum Super which has remained one of the most popular kreteks until today. Today, Djarum is one of the largest cigarette companies in Indonesia and with Sampoerna they compose the bulk of the kreteks consumed in the world today.

Sources:
http://www.djarum.com

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