Djoko Susanto, born Kwok Kwie Fo (; born 9 February 1950) is an Indonesian entrepreneur, successful businessman and well known as a new billionaire of Indonesia since 2011. Susanto was the owner of

Alfamart PT Sumber Alfaria Trijaya Tbk, doing business as Alfamart, is an Indonesian primarily-franchised convenience store chain. As of June 2023, it has over 18,000 stores in 27 provinces spread across Indonesia, with 4 million daily customers and tens ...

, retail business with mini-marts concept.

Early life

Susanto is the sixth out of 10 siblings, he only reached the 1st grade. He had to drop out of school due to a policy of the new order government that prohibits students with Chinese sounding names from attending public schools (he later on changed his name so that he could continue his studies). At the age of 17 he started managing his parents' modest 5-foot stall inside Pasar Arjuna, a traditional market in

Jakarta Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (; ''DKI Jakarta'') and formerly known as Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia until 1949, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia and ...

. The stall sold groceries at the time, but soon Susanto was peddling cigarettes and opening more stalls. His success attracted the attention of clove cigarette tycoon

Putera Sampoerna Putera Sampoerna (born 13 October 1947) is an Indonesian businessman. As of 2016, he had an estimated net worth of US$1.8 billion. Putera Sampoerna gained his wealth as heir to the Sampoerna cigarette company (PT HM Sampoerna Tbk.) Putera ...

. Together they opened similar stalls and then opened a discount supermarket chain.

Business empire

Susanto continued his partnership with Putera Sampoerna until 2005, then Sampoerna sold his cigarettes business, 70% of his share to

Altria Altria Group, Inc. (previously known as Philip Morris Companies, Inc. until 2003) is an American corporation and one of the world's largest producers and marketers of tobacco, cigarettes, and medical products in the treatment of illnesses ca ...

including his share on the retail business run by Susanto. Altria did not desire on retail business and then sold their shares to Northstar, but Susanto later bought the shares from Northstar, making him own the major share of 65%. He later developed the retail business into Alfa Supermarket. Nowadays, under the management of PT. Sumber Alfaria Trijaya Tbk, they run more than 5,500 stores under several brands such as Alfamart, Alfa Express, Alfa Midi and Lawson. Thus business made Susanto become the 25th wealthiest person in Indonesia on 2011, and rose to rank 17th on early 2012, decrease to 20th by November 2012.

References

External links

Forbes.comTempo.co
{{DEFAULTSORT:Susanto, Djoko 1950 births Living people Indonesian businesspeople Indonesian people of Chinese descent Businesspeople from Jakarta Indonesian billionaires