Message From The Chairman Of The Group
Business enterprise knows no “stopping midway.” It should move on. Only in this way, a business can survive in a continuously changing situation. Since the begining, the management of Mertju Buana has been well aware of this fact.
It began in 1964 as a small trading business, supplying office equipment to the government in North Sumatra. It was a turbulent period in Indonesian History. When the political and economic situation returned to normal, we moved our business from Medan in North Sumatra to Jakarta and set up PT Mertju Buana in 1967.
In the early years of its growth, Mertju Buana operated as an export-import company. We exported agricultural produce from North Sumatra to Singapore and Malaysia and Imported daily necessities from the two countries. At the same time, we also brought the imported goods to Irian Jaya, then a young province with little economic infrastructure.
The big break came in the late 1960s when we were licensed to import cloves for the growing cigarette industry. We could get the cloves from Singapore and Hong Kong, but we wanted to break the chain of middle-men. Therefore, we imported the commodity directly from the producing countries - Zanzibar and Madagascar.
As business expanded, we began diversifying - first into glassware, then into agriculture, construction, automotive, property, and finance. To manage the various investment port-folios, we upgraded Mertju Buana into a holding company.
Mertju means tower or pillar and Buana the globe. It has been our objective to make Mertju Buana one of the pillars supporting business growth in Indonesia.
Mertju Buana continues to expand along with the growth of the Indonesian Economy.
We will move on, not only because growth generates profits for the shareholders but even more it contributes to keeping the Indonesian economy working.