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Sampoerna appoints new top executive
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Leadership succession: PT Hanjaya Mandala Sampoerna’s outgoing president director Paul Norman Janelle (left) introduces his successor Mindaugas Trumpaitis to reporters during a press conference on Friday in Jakarta. (Courtesy of Hanjaya Mandala Sampoerna /File)
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igarette producer PT Hanjaya Mandala Sampoerna, Indonesia’s largest company by market value, has appointed Mindaugas Trumpaitis as its new president director to replace Paul Norman Janelle, who led the company for the past four years.
Janelle, a Canadian, will move to Lausanne, Switzerland, to assume a senior management position at Philip Morris International (PMI) headquarters.
"Mr. Mindaugas comes from Lithuania. He has been working with Philip Morris for 19 years in Latvia, Finland, Mexico, Switzerland and Canada," Janelle said on Friday in fluent Indonesian during a press conference after the company concluded its extraordinary shareholders meeting.
PMI, one of the world’s largest tobacco firms, owns 92.5 percent of Sampoerna shares through PT Philip Morris Indonesia.
Under Janelle’s leadership, Sampoerna controlled 34.5 percent of the market share, the most in the country. During the first nine months of 2016, the company increased its production output by 11 percent to 31.01 billion cigarettes compared to the same period last year, higher than the industry average that stood at 10.3 percent.
Janelle said the company would face multiple challenges next year, including an increase in excise duties and the declining popularity of hand-rolled cigarettes among young customers.
The production of hand-rolled cigarettes is labor intensive, thus a sales decline would affect workers in the future.
“Next year is going to be rough, but I believe Mr. Mindaugas can improve our business," Janelle said.
Friday’s shareholders meeting also approved the appointment of Michael Scharer as the company’s new operations director to replace Peter Haase, who is preparing for retirement. (hwa)
