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Imperial Brands plc

Type	Public limited company
Traded as	LSE: IMB OTCQX: IMBBY OTCQX: ITYBF FTSE 100 Component
Industry	Tobacco
Founded	1901; 117 years ago (1901)
Headquarters	Bristol , United Kingdom
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Mark Williamson (Chairman) Alison Cooper (CEO)
Products	Cigarettes, cigars, fine-cut rolling tobacco, snuff, rolling papers and tubes
Revenue	£30.247 billion (2017)[1]
Operating income	£2.278 billion (2017)[1]
Net income	£1.447 billion (2017)[1]
Number of employees	33,800 (2017)[1]
Subsidiaries	Fontem Ventures Imperial Tobacco ITG Brands Logista Tabacalera[2]
Website	www.imperialbrandsplc.com

Imperial Brands plc, formerly Imperial Tobacco Group plc, is a British multinational tobacco company headquartered in Bristol, United Kingdom. It is the world’s fourth-largest international cigarette company measured by market share after Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco, and Japan Tobacco, and the world's largest producer of cigars, fine-cut tobacco, and tobacco papers.^[3]

Imperial Brands produces over 320 billion cigarettes per year, has 51 factories worldwide, and its products are sold in over 160 countries.^[4] Its brands include Davidoff, West, Gauloises Blondes, Montecristo, Golden Virginia (the world's largest-selling hand rolling tobacco), Drum (the world's second-largest-selling fine-cut tobacco), and Rizla (the world’s best-selling rolling paper).^[5]

Imperial Brands is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It had a market capitalization around £24.3 billion as of 23 December 2011, the 19th-largest of any company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange.^[6]

Imperial Tobacco Canada has no relationship to Imperial Tobacco Group plc. Imperial Tobacco Canada is the Canadian subsidiary of British American Tobacco.

History

1901 to 2000

A 2-ounce (57 g) tin for J&F Bell "Three Nuns" tobacco

The Imperial Tobacco Company was created in 1901 through the amalgamation of 13 British tobacco and cigarette companies: W.D. & H.O. Wills of Bristol (the leading manufacturer of tobacco products at that time), John Player & Sons of Nottingham, and 11 other independent family businesses, which were in competition with companies from the United States by the American Tobacco Company.^[7][8] First W. D. & H. O. Wills of Bristol merged with Stephen Mitchell & Son of Glasgow. Subsequently, other smaller companies including Lambert & Butler, William Clarke & Son, Franklyn Davey, Edwards Ringer & Bigg, Hignett Brothers, Hignett's Tobacco, Adkins & Sons, Richmond Cavendish, D&J MacDoland, and F&J Smith joined in the amalgamation. In 1904, James & Finlay Bell Ltd merged with Stephen Mitchell & Son. The Company's first chairman was William Henry Wills of the Wills Company.^[7]

In 1902, the Imperial Tobacco Company and the American Tobacco Company agreed to form a joint venture: the British-American Tobacco Company Ltd.^[7] The parent companies agreed not to trade in each other's domestic territory and to assign trademarks, export businesses, and overseas subsidiaries to the joint venture. It built the Imperial Tobacco Company Building at Mullins, South Carolina, between 1908 and 1913.^[9] American Tobacco sold its share in 1911, but Imperial maintained an interest in British American Tobacco until 1980.^[7] In 1973, the Imperial Tobacco Company, having become increasingly diversified by acquisition of (amongst others) restaurant chains, food services and distribution businesses, changed its name to Imperial Group.^[10]

In 1910, Imperial Tobacco formed the Imperial Tobacco Company of India.^[11]

In 1985, the company acquired the Peoples Drugstore chain and all subsidiaries from A. C. Israel.^[12] In 1986 the Company was acquired by the conglomerate Hanson Trust plc for £2.5billion.^[13] Divestments during the period of ownership by Hanson included Courage Brewery to Elders, Golden Wonder to Dalgety, Finlays to Arunbhai J. Patel, the wholesaling arm of Sinclair & Collis to Palmer & Harvey, Imperial Hotels and Catering to Trust House Forte and Ross Frozen Foods to United Biscuits. This also led to a dispute over pension payments to employees, as seen in Imperial Group Pension Trust Ltd v Imperial Tobacco Ltd.^[14] In 1996, following a decision to concentrate on core tobacco activities, Hanson de-merged Imperial and it was listed as an independent company on the UK stock exchange.^[15]

2000 to present

Imperial Brands head office in Bristol

The Reemtsma head office in Hamburg, Germany

In 2003, Imperial acquired the world's then fourth-largest tobacco company, Reemtsma Cigarettenfabriken GmbH of Germany: the deal added brands such as Davidoff, Peter Stuyvesant, and West to its portfolio.^[16] In 2007, Imperial Tobacco entered the United States tobacco market with its $1.9-billion acquisition of Commonwealth Brands Inc., then the fourth-largest tobacco company in the US.^[17] In February 2008, Imperial acquired the world's then fifth-largest tobacco company, Altadis, whose brands included Fortuna, Gauloises Blondes, and Gitanes.^[18] A number of factory closures were subsequently announced, including the long-running cigar factory in Bristol.^[19]

Following the Scottish Parliament's decision in January 2010 to ban the display of tobacco products in shops, as well as the availability of tobacco vending machines in public buildings with effect from autumn 2011, Imperial Tobacco attempted to challenge the change in the law on the grounds that regulations of the sale goods rested with the Houses of Parliament in Westminster. However, this case was dismissed on 30 September 2010 by Lord Bracadale in the Court of Session in Edinburgh.^[20]

Logo as Imperial Tobacco

In 2011, Altadis USA Inc. said it would add to its Fort Lauderdale, Florida, headquarters and move Commonwealth Brands Inc. employees from Bowling Green, Kentucky.^[21] The company's name changed to Commonwealth-Altadis Inc.^[22]

In 2013, Imperial opened a new global headquarters in Bristol.^[23]

In April 2014, Imperial announced the closure of its long-running Horizon factory in Nottingham. The factory closed in 2016, marking the end of cigarette production in England.^[24]

On 15 July 2014, Reynolds American agreed to buy Greensboro, North Carolina-based Lorillard Tobacco Company, for $27.4 billion.^[25] The deal also included the sale of the Kool, Winston, Salem, and blu eCigs brands to Imperial for $7.1 billion.^[26] In November 2014, Imperial said Commonwealth-Altadis and the Lorillard operations being acquired would be called ITG Brands LLC.^[27] The deal with Lorillard was completed on 12 June 2015, and as part of the deal, Greensboro became the location of the ITG headquarters.^[28] On November 1, 2018, ITG announced production would move from the former American Tobacco Company plant in Reidsville, North Carolina, built in 1892 and later expanded, to Greensboro by 2020. The plant made USA Gold, Sonoma, Montclair and Rave.^[29]

In February 2016 Imperial changed its name to Imperial Brands to reflect the growing importance of the company's other businesses.^[30]

In 2018 a subsidiary, Imperial Brands Ventures, took a stake in Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies which is licensed by the UK government to develop cannabis-based medicines.^[31]

Archives

The principal companies involved in setting up Imperial Tobacco were W D & H O Wills Limited and John Player & Sons of Nottingham. Bristol Archives holds extensive records of W D & H O Wills and Imperial Tobacco (Ref. 38169).^[32]Nottinghamshire Archives hold the John Player and Sons collections (main ref. DD/PL).^[33] The archives at Liverpool Central Library hold records of the Ogden Branch (Ref. 380 OGD).^[34]

Products

The company's brands include:

Cigarettes

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  A packet of Fortuna cigarettes
  

  
  

  
  


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  Packets of Gauloises Blondes cigarettes
  

  
  

  
  


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  A Montecristo cigar
  

  
  

  
  

Other

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  Bali Shag premium fine-cut tobacco


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  Drum fine-cut tobacco


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  Golden Virginia fine-cut tobacco


• Players Gold Leaf fine-cut tobacco


• Champion Legendary Ruby fine-cut tobacco


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  RizLa+ rolling paper
  


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  Tally-Ho rolling paper


• Skruf Snus


• Van Nelle fine-cut tobacco

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  A packet of Drum tobacco
  

  
  

  
  


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  Rizla+ King Size Silver Slims
  

  
  

  
  

Operations

The Nottingham factory, and the group's French factory in Nantes closed in 2016, with production moved to Eastern Europe.^[35]

Senior management

Imperial Brands' chairman is Mark Williamson. The company's operating executive currently comprises the following:^[36]

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  Alison Cooper – Chief Executive


• Richard Hill – Business Transformation & HR Director


• Fernando Dominguez – Premium Cigar Director


• Matthew Phillips – Corporate Affairs Director


• Walter Prinz – Group Manufacturing, Supply, and Research & Development Director


• Oliver Tant – Chief Financial Officer

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Imperial Tobacco Group.

• Official website


• Imperial Tobacco


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  Documents and clippings about Imperial Brands in the 20th Century Press Archives of the German National Library of Economics (ZBW)