Surjanto’s Business Traces Marketing Bottled Tea, Past & Present


Surjanto’s Business Traces Marketing Bottled Tea, Past & Present

reported: Liu Setiawan

 

Jakarta, January 18, 2025/Indonesia Media – Surjanto Sosrodjojo, the second generation of the Sosrodjojo Family who founded a beverage factory in the 1940s, was frustrated when he failed to market Teh Botol in 1973, when he had just finished his studies at the University of Mannheim, Germany. When his father had started to hand over the operation of the tea company to his four sons (Soetjipto, Soegiharto, Surjanto, Soemarsono), he was given the task of marketing Teh Botol. “I was almost frustrated (failed) when I started marketing from shop to shop. I was confused about how to sell it. All the shop owners refused because they were afraid the tea would go stale,” said Surjanto.

As his family’s philosophy of life, he saw failure as a whip. Experience for a month of marketing, and being rejected by the shop owner, he suddenly remembered one of the economic theories of the company. He had studied it when he was still a student in Mannheim (1966 – 1973). Companies, especially manufacturing, are established to create customers. Beverage products, at least must create customers who pass by using vehicles or on foot. “The theory is, thirsty customers are definitely looking for drinks. It is impossible to sell at home, so I thought hard for a solution to sell bottled tea on the streets. From there, the idea came to mind to make umbrellas and boxes for drinks,” said Surjanto.

 

Marketing at that time had to be aggressive because the company had started using machines. When it was manual, the production capacity was only 500 crates of bottles per day. But after buying a machine from Germany, production reached 10,000 crates. If it was not marketed, it would definitely pile up in the factory. At that time, sales were at Pasar Senen, Central Jakarta. When the public had started to know about bottled tea, he continued to apply the pricing strategy. Because with affordable prices, it also created customers. “At that time we sold it for around 25 rupiah (from the factory). People sold it for 75 rupiah on the side of the road. With just an ID card, you can apply to sell bottled tea. We maintain a very cheap price, not aggressively getting profit. Profits come from management, how to manage customers,” said the man born in 1938, who received a Diplom Kaufmann (business administration) from the University of Mannheim.

 

After almost 10 years of handling bottled tea marketing, he began to think about sharing his experience and knowledge. Around 1980, he and Cacuk Sudarijanto (President Director of PT. Telekomunikasi Indonesia 1988-1992), Tanri Abeng (entrepreneur) founded PERMANIN (Indonesian Management Association). because at that time, Tanri Abeng was also worried about the shortage of managers in Indonesia. “After my reputation rose due to the increase in the bottled tea business, many invited me as a speaker at various business seminars. Permanin held a seminar, with a ticket price of 200 USD per participant. It turned out that the enthusiasm was very high. All the seats in the seminar room at the Mandarin Hotel (Jl. MH Thamrin Menteng) were full. But the committee did not document the seminar activities,” said the alumni of the Pahoa Mangga Besar School ( the first Chinese school established during the Dutch colonial era)

One of the materials presented at that time was the implementation of a pricing strategy for selling bottled tea. Because the association of the soft drink industry at that time also wanted to agree to a price that was almost the same. But he refused because the bottled tea pricing strategy proved effective. Around 1974, sales figures increased. Almost every day, shop owners and beverage agents queued at the bottled tea factory in the Cakung area of East Jakarta. They asked for a quota, some even bribed to get a bigger quota. “There was an agent who brought fruits, cakes for us. He asked for a quota of 100 – 200 crates to be resold. He admitted to making a big profit. The pricing strategy was effective because our profit was greater than our competitors, such as Coca Cola,” said Surjanto when met in his office at Wisma Mitra Sunter.

 

In the 1980s, he decided to retire early for marketing activities. But he also started to fix logistics transportation for shipping bottled tea to various regions, even outside the island. He understands the condition of the company, especially family businesses like Teh Botol Sosro. He admitted to believing in the myth and challenges of company management that relies on the family. Most Chinese families believe that no matter how successful and big the business empire that has been built, everything can return to zero in the third generation. “After retiring, I developed (the business) transportation (of bottled tea) only. I bought about five hectares of land in the 1980s. Now, the business is not limited to bottled tea transportation but logistics in Tambun Bekasi. The business is integrated, transportation with pools, workshops and warehousing,” said Surjanto. (LS/IM)

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