Sido Muncul Trains Employees and Students on Stock Saving to Strengthen Financial Literacy
SEMARANG, KOMPAS.com – As an effort to strengthen Indonesia’s capital market, PT Industri Jamu Dan Farmasi Sido Muncul Tbk (Sido Muncul) has conducted stock saving education for its employees as well as students from various universities in Semarang City on Monday (30/3/2026).
The education was initiated by Sido Muncul’s Director, Dr. (H.C.) Irwan Hidayat, to encourage more Indonesians to enter the capital market and increase domestic investor participation.
“I want Indonesians to become domestic investor participants. I have proven it with the names Hotel Tentrem, Ayam Goreng Bima, without depending on other people’s brands,” said Irwan during a break in the training at Sido Muncul Factory Agrotourism.
“I once discussed with my housemaid who asked about investment alternatives. From there, I saw that financial education is still very much needed in various circles.”
According to Irwan, stock saving can be done by almost everyone by adjusting to each person’s financial capacity.
While recommending stock saving, Irwan advised the public to be careful in choosing company shares. Primarily, in examining the financial track record of the company to be selected as an investment destination.
“The public can choose companies that have been proven, have a good track record, distribute dividends well, and the company is developing. Also check companies that have always been profitable for decades,” he continued.
“If just taught, people often forget. The most important thing is practice. Therefore, I am implementing it today to my employees. At Sido Muncul, there are 4,000 employees, but only 30 own shares. So, I am campaigning, I want to teach them,” he stressed.
Irwan even invited Director of PT Ina Sekuritas Indonesia, Budiman Satrio Sudono, to provide stock education to hundreds of Sido Muncul employees.
It should be noted that, in addition to Sido Muncul employees, the event was also attended by dozens of students from various campuses in Semarang, such as Universitas Diponegoro (Undip), Universitas Negeri Semarang (Unnes), Universitas Dian Nuswantoro (Udinus), and Universitas Katolik Soegijapranata (Unika).
Budiman Satrio Sudono conveyed that every investment instrument, including shares, carries risks. However, he asked the public not to be afraid of losses.
Nevertheless, he stated that the risk of loss can be minimised by choosing the right company. One of them, he mentioned Sido Muncul as the only herbal medicine company listed on the stock exchange with a relatively positive financial record.
“(Sido Muncul) is one of the best stocks. I’m not praising excessively, even if Mr Irwan is not here, I would say the same. We have had the The Best CEO programme several times, and coincidentally at that time the CEO of Sido Muncul was Mr David Hidayat. He was selected as The Best CEO. Awards like this are not given lightly because there are parameters. Especially, companies listed on the exchange can reach 700,” he explained.
One of Sido Muncul’s employees, Bambang (58), admitted to being pleased to gain new insights about shares through the event. He assessed that by buying Sido Muncul’s shares, the sense of ownership and loyalty to his company would increase.
Meanwhile, one Unnes student, Edwin Irjabar Silalahi, admitted to deepening his financial and capital market literacy through the opportunity. He and his friends felt they better understood the risks or benefits of stock saving directly from experts.
“From this event, I gained a lot of knowledge. One of them is share diversification. The material also taught us to change the mindset to stock saving and not with the term ‘playing’ shares,” said the Unnes Management student.
On the same occasion, Irwan also responded to several hate speech remarks about the Tolak Angin brand that went viral on X some time ago. Irwan recounted that he once directly contacted the account owner to ask about the motive behind the post.
“After investigating, it turned out many were just reposting without understanding the impact,” said Irwan.
In his investigation, Irwan also found that most spreaders of hate speech were merely netizens seeking attention or popularity on social media. Even though they were also Tolak Angin consumers.
He assumed this as a low awareness and digital literacy among the Indonesian people.
Although detrimental to the company, Irwan was reluctant to take the matter to legal channels. He chose to communicate directly with the relevant parties to seek clarification and educate them.
According to Irwan, this approach is considered more effective and humane, given that many perpetrators do not have malicious intent.
“I’m even sorry for them, because what they seek is just fame. If taken to court, it would only make it harder for them to spend money and time,” he revealed.
Furthermore, Irwan urged the public to be wiser in using social media, especially when sharing information related to products or companies. He emphasised the importance of verifying the truth of information before disseminating it to the public.
“If you don’t know, it’s better not to post. If already posted, it’s better to delete it,” he stressed.