Altria Group, Inc. NYSE: MO (previously named Philip Morris Companies Inc.), based in New York City, is one of the world's largest food, beverage, and tobacco corporations and a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500. It owns the brands Marlboro under its Philip Morris USA arm and retains a majority stake in Kraft Foods and a 36% interest in SABMiller, parent company of Miller Brewing. Altria's tobacco subsidiary, Philip Morris, is the world's largest commercial tobacco company by sales. (The China National Tobacco Co. and Japan Tobacco sell larger volumes.) Their flagship Marlboro is the world's most popular tobacco brand. Other popular tobacco brands owned by Phillip Morris are Parliament, Virginia Slims, and Benson and Hedges (in some markets only). Philip Morris was begun by a London tobacconist of the same name. He was one of the first people to sell hand-rolled cigarettes in the 1860s, selling them under the brand names Oxford and Cambridge Blues, following the adoption of cigarette smoking by British soldiers returning from the Crimean War. The company opened its New York office in 1902 and soon became part of James Duke's American Tobacco Company monopoly. Though Altria's headquarters are still in New York, in 2004 its Philip Morris USA division completed a move of its 682 New York based employees to Richmond, Virginia to consolidate operations and achieve cost savings for shareholders.1 Philip Morris bought Kraft Foods on October 30, 1988 for US$13.1 billion, in a bid to diversify from the declining tobacco business and to reduce litigation risk. It also purchased the Nabisco division of the former RJR Nabisco in 2000.
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Smoke Free Indy and other backers of a comprehensive smoking cigarettes ban covering bars and fraternal organizations kicked off their campaign today with a news conference outside the City-County Council chambers.Democrat Angela Mansfield and Republican Ben Hunter, the council sponsors of a planned proposal that would expand Marion County’s 2005 smoke-free ordinance, said they will continue pushing despite a left-field surprise this week. On Tuesday, Council President Ryan Vaughn announced he would introduce a proposal in December, while Republicans still have majority control of the...
On November 17, Porter-Starke Services will implement an organization-wide tobacco-free policy. The policy will be implemented at all of the community mental health center's office locations in Portage, Valparaiso and Knox. The date for implementing the policy was selected in conjunction with the American Cancer Society's "Great American Smokeout."To make the transition, Porter-Starke Services enlisted the help of the Tobacco Education and Prevention Coalition of Porter County (TEPC)."Certainly there are higher prevalence rates of smoking cigarettes among those individuals with mental...
A Terre Haute city ordinance takes effect July 1 next year that will ban smoking cigarettes in all bars, taverns, businesses and enclosed public places. A similar action is to take effect at the same time under a Vigo County ordinance.Now, Vigo County Attorney Robert Wright is reviewing the ordinances to ensure “both are consistent and are operating on a level playing field,” Wright said.Wright said county health officials wanted to make sure that “both [city and county] ordinances are substantially similar so that a business, a tavern, operating outside the city limits does not have...
With the Autumn Leaves Festival as a backdrop, history buffs and festival attendees gathered in the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History courtyard Sunday afternoon to hear Billy Yeargin deliver a lecture about cheap cigarettes and American culture.Yeargin, a professor with extensive knowledge of the history of the discount cigarette online industry, was the guest speaker for the October “History Talks” program at the museum. He spoke at 2 p.m. on Sunday about tobacco’s impact on Amerian society over the years.Though the event was originally scheduled to be held inside the museum,...
If you watch them they won’t smoke, at least that’s what a local study says. Sale of cigarettes store to minors has been reduced by 97 percent in the last seven years since a local program began monitoring retailers.The group “Communities Against Abuse” presented the results of their youth purchase survey Tuesday to the El Cajon City Council.The study shows the sale of discount cigarette online to minors has been reduced by 97 percent in the last seven years. In 2004, 40 percent of local teens were illegally sold cigarettes in El Cajon Communities.In response, the city passed the...