R.J. Reynolds history

Reynolds, along with his brother William Neal Reynolds, who joined the firm in 1884, controlled the company.

In 1885 he introduced his own brand, Schnapps, which became popular.

In 1890 the company issued its first stock, with R.J. Reynolds owning nearly 90 percent of the company.

In 1892 a sales department was created along with a systematic national advertising program.

In 1893, George Brown formed a new partnership with his brother-in-law, Robert Williamson, whose father owned two tobacco factories.

Then the new company, Brown & Williamson, leased a small facility, hired 30 employees, and began manufacturing in February 1894.

In 1895 the company introduced its first smoking tobacco brand, Naturally Sweet Cut Plug.

In 1898 the company's assets were valued at more than $1 million.

In April 1899 Reynolds sold two-thirds of his stock to Continental, but retained his position as president of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.

In late 1907 he introduced Prince Albert smoking tobacco, a unique mixture of burley and flue-cured tobacco.

By the time he reacquired control of the company in 1912, the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company was the smallest of the big four tobacco manufacturers, but it was quick to expand.

By July 1913 Reynolds had manufactured the company's first cigarette.

Reynolds spent more than $2 million in 1915 in an aggressive national advertising campaign.

Winston-Salem was the eighth-largest port of entry in the United States by 1916.

In 1917, the company bought 84 acres (34 ha) of property in Winston-Salem and built 180 houses that it sold at cost to workers, to form a development called "Reynoldstown".

By the time of his death in 1918, Reynolds had revolutionized the tobacco industry and brought economic development to a large area of North Carolina through his business and philanthropic endeavors.

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

By 1924 the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company's net profits surpassed the nation's largest manufacturer, the American Tobacco Company.

In 1925, Brown & Williamson purchased J.G. Flynt Tobacco Co. and its trademarks, including the popular Sir Walter Raleigh smoking tobacco.

On March 24, 1927, in Winston-Salem, an announcement was made that Brown & Williamson was being acquired by London-based British American Tobacco p.l.c. (BAT) and reorganized as Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation.

Meanwhile, B&W’s first national brand, Raleigh, was launched as a premium cigarette in 1928.

The Reynolds Building - the new headquarters for Reynolds Tobacco Company - opened in downtown Winston-Salem on April 27, 1929.

William Neal Reynolds retired as chairman in 1931 to be replaced by Bowman Gray, Sr.

In 1933, B&W launched KOOL cigarettes, the first United States menthol brand to gain nationwide distribution.

In 1936, B&W introduced Viceroy as the industry’s first cork-tipped filter product.

By 1938 the company produced 84 brands of chewing tobacco, 12 brands of smoking tobacco, and one primary brand of cigarette, Camel.

In 1949 Reynolds introduced a major new cigarette brand, Cavalier.

In 1952 an article entitled "Cancer by the Carton" appeared in Reader's Digest, and the next year the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute announced that its research showed a relationship between cancer and tobacco.

In 1954, Reynolds Tobacco introduced Winston – the first filter cigarette to achieve a major success in the marketplace.

Reynolds Tobacco introduced Salem – the first filter-tipped menthol cigarette, in 1956.

The board of directors also responded by appointing a diversification committee in 1957 to study possible investment in nontobacco areas and to consider expansion of tobacco operations overseas.

Alexander H. Galloway became president in 1960 and, along with Chairman Bowman Gray, Jr., led the company into a period of unparalleled growth and diversification.

Reynolds Tobacco opened its new Whitaker Park cigarette plant in 1961, a few miles away from downtown Winston-Salem.

All nontobacco companies were placed under the direction of a subsidiary--R.J. Reynolds Foods--that was created in 1966.

In 1968 R.J. Reynolds International was established to develop foreign tobacco markets.

In 1969 the company bought Sea-Land Industries, a containerized shipping business, and adopted a new corporate name--R.J. Reynolds Industries.

Aminoil, a domestic crude oil and natural gas exploration firm, was purchased for $600 million in 1970.

J. Paul Sticht, originally an executive from Federated Department Stores, who joined Reynolds in 1972, and his protégé J. Tylee Wilson led Reynolds into a period of extensive growth.

By 1976 Philip Morris's Marlboro surpassed Winston in domestic sales.

In September 1980 the company announced an ambitious $2 billion, ten-year construction and plant modernization plan.

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

By 1983 Philip Morris had replaced Reynolds as the leader in domestic sales.

In 1984 Reynolds sold Aminoil to Phillips Petroleum for $1.7 billion.

F. Ross Johnson, who came over from Nabisco in 1985, was appointed president and chief operations officer.

On June 16, 1986, the United States Federal Trade Commission filed a formal complaint against RJRT as a result of the ad.

In 1987, a bidding war ensued between several financial firms to acquire RJR Nabisco.

At a meeting of the board of directors on October 19, 1988, Johnson proposed a massive leveraged buyout.

Finally, the private equity takeover firm Kohlberg Kravis and Roberts & Co (commonly referred to as KKR) was responsible for the 1988 leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco. As a result, in February 1989, RJR Nabisco paid executive F. Ross Johnson US$53,800,000 as part of a golden handshake clause, the largest such deal in history at the time, as severance compensation for his acceptance of the KKR takeover.

↑ Burrough B, Helyar J. Barbarians at the Gate: The fall of RJR Nabisco, 1990

By 1991 it had reduced its debt to about $17 billion from $25 billion at the time of the buyout.

In 1994, then CEO James Johnston testified under oath before Congress, saying that he didn't believe that nicotine is addictive.

By early 1995 KKR had sold all its remaining shares.

After preparing for another such fight, Icahn sold all of his 19.9 million shares in March 1997 for $730 million.

Finally, late in 1998 the cigarette makers agreed to pay states $206 billion.

In July 1999, R.J. Reynolds named Andrew Schindler president, CEO, and chairman of the newly independent company.

On December 11, 2000, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings, Inc. acquired its former parent company, Nabisco Group Holdings Corp., in a transaction that netted RJR $1.6 billion in cash.

In 2001, in Indianapolis, B&W began testing Advance Lights, a cigarette with reduced levels of many of the principal toxins found in cigarette smoke.

On a combined 2003 basis, the company would have had annual revenues of approximately $8.4 billion, annual United States domestic cigarette volume of 119 billion units, and more than 30 percent of the cigarette sales in the United States.

On July 30, 2004, following approval by RJR shareholders and United States and European regulatory authorities, Reynolds American Inc. became the parent company of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company and Lane Limited.

In November 2005, the health advocacy groups The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the National Latino Council on Alcohol and Tobacco Prevention, and Floridians for Youth Tobacco Education warned that RJR was increasingly marketing to Latino children.

In May 2006, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company introduced Camel Snus, an innovative smoke-free, spitless tobacco product made of pasteurized tobacco contained in pouches.

November 28, 2007-RJR announces it will not advertise its brands in newspapers or consumer magazines next year.

Camel Snus was launched nationally in 2009.

In 2010, Reynolds American announced that the company would close its manufacturing plants in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Puerto Rico.

On July 15, 2014, Reynolds American agreed to buy Lorillard Tobacco Company for $27.4 billion.

In June 2015, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company brands Winston, Salem and Kool were sold to Imperial Tobacco Group, and Reynolds American Inc. acquired Lorillard Inc., with R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company becoming the manufacturer of Newport.