Philip Morris Capital history

The ancestor of the present company was incorporated in 1919 as Philip Morris & Company, Ltd.

1925: The Marlboro cigarette is introduced.

After a seven-year absence, McKitterick rejoined Ellis in 1930 and the two men set about buying Morris's stock from their former employer, now in retreat from the tobacco business.

1931: Reuben M. Ellis and Leonard B. McKitterick gain control of Morris.

1936: The company sells 7.5 billion cigarettes and operates as the 4th largest manufacturer in the industry.

When Morris's sales doubled by 1942, Lyon and company president Otway Chalkey began casting about for some means to expand capacity, especially difficult given the fact that tobacco needed to be cured several years before its use in cigarette production.

A massive 1948 advertising campaign claiming that English Blend did not cause "cigarette hangover," a previously unknown disorder, led to a fresh gain in market share and profit.

1955: The Marlboro brand is reinvented with an "American Cowboy" theme.

The tobacco company Philip Morris Inc. obtained controlling interest in Miller Brewing Company in 1970.

By 1973, it was the second most popular cigarette brand in the United States and accounted for roughly two-thirds of Morris's tobacco business.

1975: Morris introduces the Merit cigarette brand signaling the firm's entrance into the low-tar market.

Another subsidiary, investment company Philip Morris Capital Corporation, was formed in 1982.

Altria Group, formerly Philip Morris Companies, Inc., American holding company founded in 1985, the owner of several major American companies with interests in tobacco products and wine, most notably Philip Morris Inc., the largest cigarette manufacturer in the United States.

Indeed, 60 percent of Morris's total profit for 1987 was generated by Marlboro's popularity both at home and abroad.

Morris also expanded its holdings overseas, buying Jacobs Suchard, a Swiss maker of coffee and chocolate for $4.1 billion in 1990; four years later it purchased confectionery companies in Russia and the Ukraine, as well as making inroads into the Chinese market through several joint ventures.

In 1993, it cut the price of its Marlboro brand in an effort to gain an increased share of a sluggish market.

With $27 billion in sales by 1995, and more than 2,800 different product offerings, Kraft ranked as the world's second-largest food company.

Despite heavily marketing its "lite" beers to the Baby Boomer market, Miller's 3rd quarter 1996 income fell 1.7 percent and the company responded by cutting operating costs.

1998: The tobacco industry forms a settlement with 46 states and agrees to pay out nearly $206 billion over the next 25 years to cover tobacco-related claims and lawsuits; it also agrees to advertising and marketing restrictions related to tobacco.

In 1999 it purchased all rights to the Liggett cigarette brands L&M, Chesterfield, and Lark.

Morris secured its number two position in the global food industry in 2000 with the purchase of Nabisco Holdings Corp.

In fact, when the Bush administration took office in 2001, many analysts felt that the litigation and frequent tax increases would lessen under Republican leadership.