Gallaher Group was a
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
-based
multinational tobacco company which traded on the
London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the
FTSE 100 Index, prior to its acquisition by
Japan Tobacco
Hepburn: ''Nippon Senbai Kōsha''
, type = 1985-: Public (''kabushiki gaisha'') 1949-1985: Statutory corporation
, traded_as =
, industry = FoodTobacco
, foundation = 1898 (as Imperial Japanese Tobacco Company)1 June 1949 (as Japan Tobacco ...
in April 2007. Japan Tobacco trades in the United Kingdom as Gallaher Ltd.
History
The business was founded in 1857 by
Tom Gallaher in
Derry,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
(now part of
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
.) By 1896, he had opened the largest tobacco factory in the world in
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...
. The business was incorporated on 28 March 1896 to "carry on in all their branches the businesses of tobacco, cigar, cigarettes and snuff manufacture".
Formerly manufacturing in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
and
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
, Gallaher moved production to Belfast (cigarettes) and Wales (cigars) in the early 20th century.
Gallaher went on to acquire a number of rival companies including J. A. Pattreiouex (1937), J. R. Freeman (1947),
Cope Bros & Co (1952) and
Benson & Hedges
Benson & Hedges is a British brand of cigarettes owned by American conglomerate Altria. Cigarettes under the ''Benson & Hedges'' name are manufactured worldwide by different companies such as Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, Philip Morris USA, British ...
(1955).
Gallaher held a
Royal Warrant of Appointment for 122 years, until the warrant was revoked in 1999 by
Queen Elizabeth II. Her son, the
Prince of Wales' rigorous anti-smoking campaigning is thought to have been a major influence behind that decision. Gallaher was allowed one year to remove the
Royal Coat of Arms from its brands bearing the mark on their packaging.
On 4 August 2000 Gallaher completed the acquisition of
Liggett Ducat, Russia's number one cigarette brand. In January 2002, Gallaher became the 100% owner of Austria's former nationalised biggest tobacco-company Austria Tabak.
In 2002 US tobacco firm
Reynolds formed Reynolds-Gallaher International to access cigarette sales in most countries in the European Union. The agreement was scheduled to run through 2012 but in May 2007, as a result of the acquisition of Gallaher Group by Japan Tobacco, it was announced that this joint-venture would cease in November 2007.
Japan Tobacco became the sole owner of the Gallaher Group on 18 April 2007, in the largest ever foreign acquisition in Japanese history.
The closure of the former J. R. Freeman's factory in
Cardiff
Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...
was announced in September 2007, with all work scheduled to move to the
Ballymena factory by September 2009.
In 2015, JTI Gallaher announced the closure of their Ballymena operations with all work due to re-locate to Eastern Europe in a cost saving measure by 2017. This resulted in the loss of over 1000 jobs in the town and ceasing of tobacco production in Ireland by Gallaher's after more than 100 years.
Operations
Until acquisition by Japan Tobacco, Gallaher operated primarily in the United Kingdom and Europe, with smaller operations in Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Gallaher was the third largest of the three major British tobacco groups after
British American Tobacco and
Imperial Tobacco.
Gallaher-owned brands included
Benson & Hedges
Benson & Hedges is a British brand of cigarettes owned by American conglomerate Altria. Cigarettes under the ''Benson & Hedges'' name are manufactured worldwide by different companies such as Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, Philip Morris USA, British ...
(with
Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco, and Japan Tobacco),
Silk Cut
Silk Cut is a British brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by Gallaher Group, a division of Japan Tobacco. The packaging is characterised by a distinctive stark white packet with the brand name in a purple, blue, red, silver, wh ...
,
Sterling,
Mayfair, Crystal,
Nil
Nil may refer to:
* nil (the number 0, zero)
Acronyms
* NIL (programming language), an implementation of the Lisp programming language
* Student athlete compensation, Name, Image and Likeness, a set of rules in the American National Collegiate At ...
,
Kensitas Club,
Senior Service, Dos Hermanos, Gold Seal,
Amber Leaf
Amber Leaf is a brand of rolling tobacco. It is a product of the Gallaher Group division of Japan Tobacco. As of May 2016, Amber Leaf tobacco is available in 30g boxes which include papers and filters, 30g and 50g pouches with rolling papers. In ...
,
Sobranie,
Hamlet Cigars, Logic (
vape) and Nordic Spirit (nicotine pouch).
The
Djarum products include Djarum Super, Djarum Black, Djarum Coklat, Djarum 76, Djarum Istimewa, Djarum Special, Djarum Menthol, Djarum Vanilla, Djarum Cherry, LA Lights, Mustang, Mr. Brown, and Envio Mild. Djarum Group's relationship with Gallaher Group has not been properly confirmed, since PT Djarum is a private Indonesian company, with the majority of its shares owned by the Hartono family.
Gallaher owned Wismilak, which is the 6th largest cigarette company in Indonesia. However, this ownership was not recorded in Wismilak Group Shareholders list as per 31 December 2014.
In the UK, Japan Tobacco International maintains a national distribution centre in
Crewe and Business Service Centre in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
.
References
External links
*
* https://www.jti.com/europe/united-kingdom
{{Authority control
Companies established in 1857
Tobacco companies of the United Kingdom
Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange
Companies based in Surrey
Japan Tobacco
1857 establishments in Ireland
2007 mergers and acquisitions