PT PP London Sumatra Indonesia Tbk, also known as Lonsum, is a plantation company in Indonesia founded in 1906 when Harrisons & Crosfield Plc, a general trading and plantation management services firm based in London, UK, started its first plantation in Indonesia near the city of Medan, North Sumatra.
Lonsum’s principal activities are plant breeding, planting, harvesting, processing and the selling of palm products, rubber, oil palm seeds, cocoa and tea. In its early years, Lonsum’s diversifed crops were rubber, tea and cocoa. Lonsum commenced oil palm plantations in 1980’s and since then oil palm has grown and become primary crop and major growth contributor to the company.
Lonsum listed its shares on Jakarta and Surabaya Stock Exchanges (now Indonesia Stock Exchange) in 1996. In 2007, Indofood Agri Resources Ltd. (IndoAgri) through its subsidiary, PT Salim Ivomas Pratama Tbk (SIMP) acquired and became Lonsum’s majority shareholder. Since the acquisition, Lonsum is part of PT Indofood Sukses Makmur Tbk’s (Indofood) Group and synergising with other companies under Indofood Group.
Lonsum’s estates are located in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Java and Sulawesi. As of December 31, 2024, total nucleus planted area was 111,367 hectares comprising 91,152 hectares of oil palm, followed by 16,231 hectares of rubber and 3,984 hectares of other crops mainly cocoa and tea. Oil palm and rubber plasma partnership was 35,779 hectares.
Lonsum operates 12 palm oil mills in Sumatra and Kalimantan, with a total annual Fresh Fruit Bunch (FFB) processing capacity of 2.7 million tonnes. Lonsum also operates 3 crumb rubber processing facilities, 2 sheet rubber processing facilities, a cocoa factory and a tea factory.
The Research and Development Centre, Sumatra Bioscience or SumBio, in Bah Lias, North Sumatra, plays a central role in improving Lonsum’s productivity and crop quality. SumBio is also known in industry as the producer of superior oil palm seeds.
The Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) certifications started since 2013, following the first certification of sustainable palm oil in North Sumatra. At the end of 2024, Lonsum has achieved 247,000 tonnes of ISPO-certified CPO or 97% of total nucleus CPO production.