A Tale of Two Rabbits (History of Dua Kelinci)

History

Once upon a time in Surabaya Ho Sie Ak and Lauw Bie Giok and their family ran a small store. One day a peanut farmer appeared asking if they would sell his inshell peanuts. The family looked at the unattractive packaging and wondered, “Why would people buy this product?” Sometime later son Hadi went fishing and thought long and hard about the peanuts. While he was doing this, two fish leapt from the water. “Ah, an omen” he thought being Chinese and somewhat superstitious. When he returned home he got in touch with a designer he knew and asked him to design a logo and packaging for the peanuts that featured the two fish he had seen. “Make something like this”, he said, handing the designer a logo with two rabbits from a Chinese confectionary wrapper.

The designer returned not long after with a picture of two rabbits fishing while sitting on a peanut and two fish jumping out of the water. This became the logo for Sari Gurih, a small roasted peanut repackaging company.

The company began to grow and the two rabbits appeared in more and more stores across the Indonesian archipelago. People came looking for and asking for Sari Gurih peanuts, but not by name. They were asking, “Where can we find the Two Rabbit peanuts?”

Eventually the name Sari Gurih was put aside and the company in 1985 re-launched itself as ‘Dua Kelinci’ which is Indonesian for ‘two rabbits.’

The company continued to grow under its lucky logo. Sons and now owners Mr Ali Arifin and Mr Hadi Sutiono moved into processing peanuts, learning as much as they could about, peanuts, cooking methods and business practice. The centre of operations moved to Pati in Central Java, a region now identified as the heart of Indonesia's roasted peanut industry.

As Dua Kelinci became bigger and more sophisticated it launched new products ­– flavoured peanuts, sand-grilled peanuts, flour-coated peanuts and flour-based snacks and drinks.

Advanced equipment and modern machinery replaced the manual labour processing of early years. A research and development team was employed, and international quality standards were introduced, and more and more people were employed. Then the company began to export its peanuts ...

The tale of Dua Kelinci is far from over, but it will remain a successful one. As for the two rabbits and the fish, they’re living happily ever after.

The Kelinci Kiosk, the Beautiful Bathroom and the ATM with a view

Dua Kelinci’s factory complex occupies about 12 hectares in the small town of Pati in Central Java. It comprises six giant processing workshops, two office buildings, guest housing, staff facilities, and the Kelinci Kiosk.

Dua Kelinci owner Hadi Sutiono, attributes his success to his “brilliant” wife Noer Wahju Budiman. She has introduced design and landscaping elements into the factory complex that have made it a feature of Pati, drawing strongly on Javanese and Balinese art forms. She had a hand in designing the kiosk where factory visitors can buy various snacks and mementoes.

Withdrawing money is also, and oddly, a delight in Pati. When the banks asked the company if they could install ATM machines outside the plant, they were told, “Yes, but we’ll design the booths”.  The booths are made of glass and look out on Balinese-style ponds and gardens.

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