Taru Martani uses Sultan's legacy to sell products
Taru Martani uses Sultan's legacy to sell products
Slamet Susanto, Yogyakarta
Cigars are associated with high-class society through films, art
and advertising. They comprise a particular taste, which is not
for everyone, but for connoisseurs a fine cigar is second to
nothing. Marketing cigars could be compared to selling fashion.
Cigar company PD Taru Martani, which is owned by the
Yogyakarta local administration, is of that belief. The company's
president director Bimo N. Wartono said that it was not the
quantity of cigars sold but the image and prestige of the company
that mattered.
Luckily, the company is aware of its most valuable assets: the
history of its cigars and the city in which it operates.
According to Bimo, producing a product while keeping in mind
tradition and the product's heritage would ensure that consumers
warmed to it.
The company is currently working on a new line: Cigars of the
Sultan's taste.
"We will borrow the prestige and charisma of the palace. This
will be no ordinary cigar. It will bear a taste and quality like
no other," said Bimo.
Located in Baciro, the country's first cigar company was
established in Bulu, near Jl. Magelang in 1918 by Dutch
businessman Eugun Migude. It is now named Taru Martani 1918 Cigar
Van Java.
In 1921, the factory moved to Jl. Argolobang
2A and was named N.V. Negresco. During the Japanese occupation of
1942, the company was renamed Jawa Tobacco Kojo. Later, in 1945,
the company was handed back to the government and the late Sultan
Hamengkubuwono IX called it Taru Martani, which in Javanese
refers to the natural process of leaves growing.
"To earn more, we don't need to produce more. That is our new
paradigm of management. We no longer depend on the quantity but
on quality," Bimo told a recent panel discussion on heritage
conservation and economic development here.
Last year, for example, with a production volume of some one
million rolls of cigars -- which was 80 percent higher than that
of the previous year -- the company earned a net profit of over
Rp 2.4 billion. The previous year's net profit was some Rp 2.2
billion.
In the future, Taru Martani has pledged to become a living
museum, a boutique cigar manufacturer and a landmark heritage
site in Baciro region.
"The older a cigar manufacture is, the higher the value of its
intangible assets," Bimo said, explaining why he considered
heritage factors so important for the company's future.