He started selling groceries at his family’s food stall in a marketplace in Jakarta when he was just a teenager, but now Djoko Susanto is among Indonesia’s wealthiest people. Known for founding the retailer Alfamart, which now has more than 16,000 mini-marts across Indonesia, he is a well-respected businessman in the industry, garnering Alfamart a huge number of awards including the title of Top Brand in both 2018 and 2019 from Frontier Research.

Alfamart started as an initiative with clove-cigarette tycoon Putera Sampoerna to make a series of cigarette stalls. Following the success of these stalls, Sampoerna and Susanto opened a discount supermarket called Alfa Toko Gudang Rabat. In 1994, it was re-named Alfa Minimart. Sampoerna later sold his cigarette business to tobacco king Phillip Morris in 2005, along with a huge number of shares in Alfa.

Susanto found a way to buy back the lost shares, and developed the retail business into what Alfamart is today. The company currently runs other supermarket brands like Alfa Express and Alfa Midi, and convenience store Lawson. The property arm of Alfamart, Alfaland, also operates hotels throughout Indonesia.