British Imperial Tobacco

The Imperial Tobacco Group PLC is the leading international tobacco company which manufactures, markets, distributes and sells a comprehensive range of cigarettes, tobaccos, cigars, rolling papers and tubes.

In 1890, James b. Duke of Durham, North Carolina merged the five largest tobacco companies in America to create the American Tobacco Company.

After having a monopoly on the American market, Duke went to England in 1901 and tried to take over the British tobacco market. In 1901 American Tobacco bought Ogden Ltd, one of the Britain’s leading tobacco manufacturers.

Duke’s purchase signaled his intentions not only of extending his operations beyond the American shore but also of capturing the market in Britain as well as Europe.

In response to this, thirteen English family-run tobacco companies formed together in December 1901 to create the Imperial Tobacco Company of Great Britain and Ireland Ltd.

This new formed company headed by W.D and H.O Wills Ltd. The Company's first Chairman was William Henry Wills of the Wills Company. A year later three more firms joined Imperial Tobacco.

In April 1902, it was announced that the Imperial Tobacco Company had entered North Carolina to start the tobacco war on Duke’s home territory.

The Imperial Tobacco was the dominant manufacturer in the United Kingdom market and was responsible for over one half of the total production in 1914.

Imperial Tobacco also owned tobacco plantations and shipment facilities in the United States. It had invested huge sums of money in marketing Virginia tobacco in Britain.

By 1939, 75 percent of the tobacco consumption in Britain was supplied by the Imperial Tobacco Company.
British Imperial Tobacco