1901 to 2000 , constructed in 1912 The Imperial Tobacco Company was created in 1901, in response to the price war in the British market promoted by
James Buchanan Duke's
American Tobacco Company. It amalgamated 13 British tobacco and cigarette companies:
W.D. & H.O. Wills of
Bristol (the leading manufacturer of tobacco products at that time),
John Player & Sons of
Nottingham,
Stephen Mitchell & Son of
Glasgow, and 10 other independent family businesses. The other, smaller companies, involved in the amalgamation included
Lambert & Butler,
William Clarke & Son, Franklyn Davey, Edwards Ringer & Bigg, Hignett Brothers, Hignett's Tobacco, Adkins & Sons, Richmond Cavendish, D&J MacDonald, and F&J Smith. The printing and packaging firm Mardon, Son & Hall was absorbed in 1902. In 1904, James & Finlay Bell Ltd was merged into the Stephen Mitchell & Son branch. The company's first chairman was
William Henry Wills of the Wills Company. Imperial extended the tobacco-growing enterprises in the United States that W.D. & H.O. Wills had developed before the amalgamation of 1901. It also established its own leaf-buying organisation in the US based at the Imperial Tobacco Warehouse in
Durham, North Carolina; this is now owned, and has been renovated by
Measurement Incorporated. It built the
Imperial Tobacco Company Building at
Mullins, South Carolina, between 1908 and 1913. Whereas American Tobacco sold its share of BAT in 1911, a divestiture prompted by Supreme Court rulings in an anti-trust case, Imperial maintained an interest in British American Tobacco until 1980. In 1986, the company was acquired by the conglomerate
Hanson Trust plc for £2.5 billion. Divestments during the period of ownership by Hanson included
Courage Brewery to
Elders,
Golden Wonder to
Dalgety, Finlays to Arunbhai J. Patel, the wholesaling arm of Sinclair & Collis to Palmer & Harvey, Imperial Hotels and Catering to
Trust House Forte and
Ross Frozen Foods to
United Biscuits. This also led to a dispute over pension payments to employees, as seen in
Imperial Group Pension Trust Ltd v Imperial Tobacco Ltd. In 1996, following a decision to concentrate on core tobacco activities, Hanson de-merged Imperial and it was listed as an independent company on the UK stock exchange.
2000 to present In 2003, Imperial acquired the world's then fourth-largest tobacco company,
Reemtsma Cigarettenfabriken GmbH of Germany: the deal added brands such as
Davidoff,
Peter Stuyvesant, and
West to its portfolio. In 2007, Imperial Tobacco entered the United States tobacco market with its $1.9-billion acquisition of Commonwealth Brands Inc., then the fourth-largest tobacco company in the US. In February 2008, Imperial acquired the world's then fifth-largest tobacco company,
Altadis, whose brands included
Fortuna,
Gauloises Blondes, and
Gitanes. A number of factory closures were subsequently announced, including the longstanding cigar factory in Bristol. Following the
Scottish Parliament's decision in January 2010 to ban the display of tobacco products in shops, as well as the availability of tobacco vending machines in public buildings with effect from late 2011, Imperial Tobacco attempted to challenge the change in the law on the grounds that regulations of the sale goods rested with the
Houses of Parliament in
Westminster. This case was dismissed on 30 September 2010 by
Lord Bracadale in the
Court of Session in
Edinburgh. In 2011, Altadis USA Inc. said it would add to its
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, headquarters and move Commonwealth Brands Inc. employees from
Bowling Green, Kentucky. The company's name changed to Commonwealth-Altadis Inc. In 2013, Imperial opened a new global headquarters in Bristol. In April 2014, Imperial announced the closure of its long-running Horizon factory in
Nottingham. The factory closed in 2016, marking the end of cigarette production in England. On 15 July 2014,
Reynolds American agreed to buy
Greensboro, North Carolina–based
Lorillard Tobacco Company for $27.4 billion. The deal also included the sale of the
Kool,
Winston,
Salem, and
blu eCigs brands to Imperial for $7.1 billion. In November 2014, Imperial said Commonwealth-Altadis and the Lorillard operations being acquired would be called
ITG Brands LLC. The deal with Lorillard was completed on 12 June 2015, and as part of the deal, Greensboro became the location of the ITG headquarters. On 1 November 2018, ITG announced production would move from the former
American Tobacco Company plant in
Reidsville, North Carolina, built in 1892, and later expanded, to Greensboro by 2020. The plant made
USA Gold, Sonoma, Montclair and Rave. In February 2016, Imperial changed its name to "Imperial Brands" to distance itself from tobacco. In 2018, a subsidiary, Imperial Brands Ventures, took a stake in Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies which is licensed by the
UK government to develop cannabis-based medicines. In November 2019, after searching for a new chairman since February, the company announced its senior independent director Thérèse Esperdy would take the role. In July 2020,
Stefan Bomhard, the former chief executive of global automotive distributor
Inchcape and former president of
Bacardi Europe, became chief executive of Imperial Brands. In 2021, Imperial Brands opened an office in Hammersmith, West London. In 2022 and 2023, Imperial Brands launched blu 2.0, an upgrade to its blu vaping device, in the UK and several other countries. In 2023, the company introduced Pulze 2.0, an updated version of its heated tobacco device. In 2024, Imperial Brands launched iSENZIA, tobacco-free nicotine sticks made from green tea leaves and designed for use with the Pulze device. In 2025, the company introduced Pulze 3.0, featuring further updates to technology, design and usability. ==Archives==