Renold PLC 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 1894 Reynolds began to experiment with smoking tobacco to compete with James Buchanan Duke's profitable brands and also because of his desire to turn scrap tobacco into a paying product.

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.

Reynolds gobbled up ten companies, but by 1905 he demonstrated his independence from the trust by producing five brands of smoking tobacco.

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

As early as 1912 R.J. Reynolds considered the production of cigarettes because of the great success that the Prince Albert brand had experienced.

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.

1917 Hans Renold Ltd. were still leading the world by having coned (i.e. tapered) bush bores in 1917.

The company prospered under R.J. Reynolds's paternalistic leadership and continued to do so for decades after his death in 1918.

William Neal Reynolds assumed the presidency after his brother's death and remained in that position until 1924 when he was elected chairman of the board of directors, with Bowman Gray, Sr., appointed president.

1925The first acquisition of a major competitor came in 1925, when Brampton Brothers Limited, with its French manufacturing subsidiary at Calais, was purchased and the operation merged with the manufacturing facility previously established in Coventry.

Ltd patented the early design of bi-planar chain, (The patent being applied for in 1928).

1930's ; industrial chains for oil, machining and cutting, agriculture, building trades, textile, food and catering, printing transmission, marine and waterway, and general industrial trades ; chain wheels ; Hans Renold invented the bush roller chain ; Includes

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

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.

With catchy advertising phrases such as "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should" and "It's what's up front that counts," the cigarette was quickly accepted, with 40 billion sold in 1954.

By 1956 Reynolds began marketing Salem, the industry's first king-size filter-tipped menthol cigarette.

In 1959 chain plates for pitches between 1.0" and 1.5" were being produced by this method.

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.

1964A significant strategic development of the Renold Group was the acquisition of John Holroyd and Co Ltd in 1964, and this marked the start of the transition from purely chain manufacture to manufacture and supply of a complete range of power transmission products and precision machine tools.

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.

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 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.

By 1986 the ultramodern Tobaccoville factory just north of Winston-Salem began production.

In 1987 Reynolds began to test-market a smokeless cigarette, Premier, in response to mounting pressure to make smoking more acceptable.

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

By early 1995 KKR had sold all its remaining shares.

Tired of fighting litigation from the Federal Trade Commission regarding the campaign and of increasing pressure from the public, R.J. Reynolds dropped the Joe Camel cartoon ads in 1997.

2000In March 2000 Renold acquired Jeffrey Chain Corp., a leading manufacturer of industrial chain in the USA. Jeffrey Chain has strong US brands and established relationships with major US distributors, of power transmission equipment, and original equipment manufacturers.

First Published in 2005.