The story
Founded by Jacob Nienhuys and Peter Wilhelm Janssen in 1869, in Medan.1
The company was established in Medan, then just a village, but conveniently located at the confluence of the Deli and Babura Rivers. Business grew rapidly. The company gained a commanding position in the area's tobacco trade, running 10 huge estates and eventually controlling exports with a monopoly. It developed railroads including 54 stations and built a field hospital. As the company and Medan grew, the Sultan of Deli (Ma'mun Al Rashid) moved his residence from Labuhan and Medan became the capital of North Sumatra in 1891.
Beside the possessions in Dutch East Indies the Deli Company had a lot of assets in both Amsterdam and Rotterdam to ensure smooth operations, e.g.:
Offices at Herengracht 286, 380 and 586, Amsterdam
warehouse Het Veem, Amsterdam
warehouses Medan, Bindjeij and Laboean
Warehouse Wijnhaven, Rotterdam
Cigar smoking declined in the 1920s and the industry was hit hard by the Great Depression a decade later.
From Wikipedia’s article on Deli Company, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3