Meet Sudono Salim (Founder of Indomie Instant Noodles)

Sudono Salim (16 July 1916 – 10 June 2012), also known as Lim Gee Tiok, was an Indonesian businessman of Foochownese origin. He was once considered the richest individual in Indonesia. He was the head of the conglomerate Salim Group before turning over its management to his youngest son Anthony Salim (now the fifth wealthiest of Indonesia’s 40 richest people) in 1992.

1952, after moving to Jakarta, Salim expanded his trading business by establishing connections with other ethnic Chinese businessmen in Singapore and Hong Kong. His soap factory became one of the primary suppliers to the Indonesian National Armed Forces. He later expanded into textiles and banking, eventually establishing the largest private bank in Indonesia—the Bank Central Asia (BCA).

In 1968, after a merger, he gained the right to a monopoly on clove importation. Bogasari, a joint venture with another Hokchia businessman became the largest producer of flour in Indonesia. These two companies were said to have provided him with the capital to establish the cement giant Indocement in 1973.

In 1990, he established the food manufacturer Indofood, the country’s largest maker of instant noodles. Indomie is a brand of instant noodle by Indofood, the largest instant noodle manufacturer in Indonesia with 72% of market share. It is distributed in Australia, Asia, Africa, New Zealand, the United States, Canada and European and Middle Eastern countries. Outside its main manufacturing plants in Indonesia, Indomie is also produced in Nigeria since 1995 where it is a popular brand and has the largest instant noodle manufacturing plant in Africa. Incorporation of De United Foods Industries Limited, the owners of the indomie brand in Nigeria and a joint venture between Tolaram Group of Singapore and Salim Group of Indonesia manufactures Indomie brand of instant noodle in Nigeria.

Outside of Indofoods, the Salim Group had in 1997 possessed US$20 billion in assets and included more than 500 companies employing over 200,000 Indonesians. When the Asian Financial Crisis hit, the conglomerate incurred US$4.8 billion in debts and had to give up control of Bank Central Asia in 1998 to the government. BCA was 30% owned by two offsprings of Suharto.

During the May 1998 riots, Salim fled to Singapore after a mob burned his home in Jakarta; his son remained to fight off the mobs and formed the Salim Group. He eventually settled in Los Angeles in the United States. Forbes magazine listed him as the 25th wealthiest businessperson in Southeast Asia in 2004 with a net worth of US$655 million.

Salim has four sons and one daughter.

On June 10, 2012, a month before his 96th birthday, Salim died from natural causes in Raffles Hospital, Singapore. He was buried in Lim Chu Kang Cemetery, Singapore.

Dufil Prima Foods Plc, makers of Indomie in Nigeria has been ranked as Africa’s most popular noodle brand in Kantar Worldpanel’s Brand Footprint ranking for 2016.

The research firm’s latest Brand Footprint study covering 15,000 brands, 200 categories, 44 countries and five continents, representing 74 per cent of the global population, said Indomie attained the first position in the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) category across Africa.

The popularity of indomie in Africa is tremendous, no child can do without eating it for two days.