UST has finished moving its operations from Connecticut to Richmond, Va., where its new parent company, [image-nocss] Altria Group Inc., is based. Altria bought the maker of the Copenhagen and Skoal smokeless tobacco brands in January in a deal valued at $10.4 billion, plus the assumption of $1.3 billion in debt.
Butler said Wednesday that about 80 people are relocating from Stamford, Conn. Most have begun working at the Richmond office and the Center for Research & Technology, though others are still winding down operations in Connecticut over the coming months. About 350 people worked at the UST office. UST gives Altria a leading position in the expanding market for moist smokeless tobacco.
Altria, owner of No. 1 U.S. cigarette maker Philip Morris USA, which sells the Marlboro brand, now controls about 50% share of the tobacco industry and offers leading brands in each segment.
Sales of smokeless tobacco have grown about 7% annually in recent years, and about 6.2 million Americans now use the products. Tobacco companies are aggressively pursuing smokeless tobacco as sales of cigarettes decline 3% to 4% each year.
"We think that there's a lot of fuel left in that tank to continue to drive cigarette smokers to adopt moist smokeless tobacco as part of their repertoire of tobacco products," Butler told AP.
Altria hoped to enter the smokeless tobacco market on its own, capitalizing on its popular Marlboro brand with both moist smokeless tobacco and Snus, small, teabag-like pouches that users stick between their cheek and gum. It discontinued market tests of the moist smokeless product after the UST acquisition, but it is expanding tests of Marlboro Snus to Arizona with redesigned packaging and other improvements based on customer feedback, Altria spokesperson David Sutton said.
Altria also owns cigar maker John Middleton Co., Ste. Michelle Wine Estates Ltd. and a 29% stake in brewer SABMiller PLC.
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