British American Tobacco US, mostly known for its acronym BATUS, was the US subsidiary of multinational company British American Tobacco (BAT), the world's second largest cigarette manufacturer. BATUS served as the U.S. holding company for BAT. In the 1960s, the company diversified into areas such as

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

, drink and the apparently booming world of

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and ...

. In 2004, BATUS merged with the other BAT's U.S. business,

Brown & Williamson Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation was a U.S. tobacco company and a subsidiary of multinational British American Tobacco that produced several popular cigarette brands. It became infamous as the focus of investigations for chemically enhanc ...

and R.J. Reynolds, to form

Reynolds American Reynolds American, Inc. is an American tobacco company which is a subsidiary of British American Tobacco and is the second-largest tobacco company in the United States. Its holdings include R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, American Snuff Company ...

.Reynolds American Inc.
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION report, Juny 30, 2004

History

BATUS was created by British American Tobacco as a subsidiary to oversee the US holdings in 1980. Through its BATUS unit, BAT diversified its tobacco holdings with acquisitions in the

sector, paper sector (through the acquisition of Appleton Paper Company) and insurance (through the acquisition of

Farmers Insurance Group Farmers Insurance Group (informally Farmers) is an American insurer group of vehicles, homes and small businesses and also provides other insurance and financial services products. Farmers Insurance has more than 48,000 exclusive and independen ...

). Management for BATUS was initially derived from Brown and Williamson Tobacco with B&W's CEO and chairman of the board, Joseph E. Edens, becoming the first president of BATUS in 1980. Edens retired as president in 1981 and was replaced by Charlie McCarty. In 1985, Hank Frigon was elected chief operating officer of the company and it was announced that he would succeed McCarty after he retired. In 1972, BATUS acquired Kohl Food and Department Stores from the Kohl family. In 1973, the company acquired

Saks Fifth Avenue Saks Fifth Avenue (originally Saks & Company; colloquially Saks) is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in New York City and founded by Andrew Saks. The original store opened in the F Street shopping district of Washington ...

and Gimbel Brothers. In 1982, BATUS acquired Marshall Field & Co and Frederick and Nelson for $310 million. In 1986, BATUS sold Gimbels to various companies including May Department Stores and Allied Stores. Also in 1986, four investors acquired Kohl's in a leveraged buyout. To manage the large retail holdings, BAT and BATUS created BATUS Retail Group in the 1980s. The group expanded the current store presence of existing businesses and developed Thimbles, a women's clothing company. In 1988, BATUS acquired Farmers Group Inc. In 1989, Sir

James Goldsmith Sir James Michael Goldsmith (26 February 1933 – 18 July 1997) was a French-British financier, tycoon''Billionaire: The Life and Times of Sir James Goldsmith'' by Ivan Fallon and politician who was a member of the Goldsmith family. His cont ...

attempted a hostile takeover of BAT. In an effort to fend off the takeover, BAT divested much of its US operations to raise capital and focus the business. BRG and BATUS was shut down and some remaining administrative operations were consolidated back to Brown and Williamson Tobacco. While the company was not required to file an annual report since they were a subsidiary of British American Tobacco based in London, they did produce reports to assist with financing and investments in the United States. One of BATUS' primary responsibilities was the management of funding and cash from US operations.

Department stores owned by BATUS

* The Crescent of

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Cana ...

''(became Frederick & Nelson 1988)'' In 1982, BATUS purchased Marshall Field's, owners of The Crescent. BATUS sold The Crescent with Frederick & Nelson in 1986. *

Frederick & Nelson Frederick & Nelson was a department store chain in the northwestern United States, based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1891 as a furniture store, it later expanded to sell other types of merchandise. The company was acquired by Marshall Fiel ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

''(closed 1992, flagship became a

Nordstrom Nordstrom, Inc. () is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin in 1901. The original Wallin & Nordstrom store operated exclusively as a shoe store, a ...

in 1998)'' In 1982, BATUS purchased Marshall Field's, owners of Frederick & Nelson. BATUS sold Frederick & Nelson with The Crescent in 1986. * Gimbels of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

and

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...

''(now

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

)'' Brown and Williamson purchased Gimbels in 1973. BATUS closed the division in 1986. Some stores were taken over by sister division Marshall Field's, which became Macy's in 2006. * J.B. Ivey of

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

, and

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

''(now Dillard's)'' In 1982, BATUS purchased Marshall Field's, owners of Ivey's. BATUS sold Ivey's in 1990 to Dillard's. *

Kohl's Kohl's (stylized in all caps) is an American department store retail chain, operated by Kohl's Corporation. it is the largest department store chain in the United States, with 1,165 locations, operating stores in every U.S. state except Haw ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

''(still operating)'' In 1972, BATUS purchased Kohl's. The Kohl's grocery stores were sold to A&P in 1983. BATUS sold Kohl's department stores in 1986.History
on Kohl's company website *

Marshall Field's Marshall Field & Company (commonly known as Marshall Field's) was an upscale department store in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in the 19th century, it grew to become a large chain before Macy's, Inc acquired it in 2005. Its eponymous founder, Mar ...

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

''(now Macy's)'' In 1982, BATUS purchased Marshall Field's. BATUS sold Marshall Field's to Dayton Hudson Corporation (now

Target Corporation Target Corporation ( doing business as Target and stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American big box department store chain headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the seventh largest retailer in the United States, and a com ...

) in 1990. Marshall Field's was then purchased by

May Department Stores The May Department Stores Company was an American department store holding company, formerly headquartered in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. It was founded in Leadville, Colorado, by David May in 1877, moving to St. Louis in 1905. After many c ...

in 2004. May Department Stores was purchased in 2005 by

Federated Department Stores Macy's, Inc. (originally Federated Department Stores, Inc.) is an American conglomerate holding company. Upon its establishment, Federated held ownership of the regional department store chains Abraham & Straus, Lazarus, Filene's, and Shillito ...

, which renamed all of the stores Macy's in 2006. *

New York City, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

''(still operating)'' Brown and Williamson acquired Saks Fifth Avenue in 1973 with its acquisition of Gimbels. In 1990, BATUS sold Saks to Investcorp S.A., which later sold Saks to Proffitt's, Inc.; that firm in turn changed its name to

Saks Incorporated Saks, Inc. (originally Proffitt's, Inc.) was an American holding company founded in 1919. Before acquisition by the Canadian-founded Hudson's Bay Company in 2013, it held ownership of department store chains including New York City-based Saks Fi ...

. Purchased by Hudson Bay Company in 2013.

References

{{Marshall Field's history Defunct retail companies of the United States Marshall Field's British American Tobacco American subsidiaries of foreign companies