ITC Limited is an Indian conglomerate, headquartered in

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

. It has a presence across six business segments, namely FMCG,

agribusiness Agribusiness is the industry, enterprises, and the field of study of value chains in agriculture and in the bio-economy, in which case it is also called bio-business or bio-enterprise. The primary goal of agribusiness is to maximize profit ...

information technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...

paper products Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, Textile, rags, poaceae, grasses, Feces#Other uses, herbivore dung, or other vegetable sources in water. Once the water is dra ...

, and

packaging Packaging is the science, art and technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale, and use. Packaging also refers to the process of designing, evaluating, and producing packages. Packaging can be described as a coo ...

. It generates a plurality of its revenue from tobacco products. In terms of

market capitalization Market capitalization, sometimes referred to as market cap, is the total value of a publicly traded company's outstanding common shares owned by stockholders. Market capitalization is equal to the market price per common share multiplied by ...

, ITC is the second-largest FMCG company in India and the third-largest tobacco company in the world. It employs 36,500 people at more than 60 locations across India. Its products are available in 6 million retail outlets in India and exported to 90 countries.

History

Tobacco business and early years

"ITC Limited" was originally named "Imperial Tobacco Company of India Limited", succeeding

Imperial Brands Imperial Brands plc (originally the Imperial Tobacco Company of Great Britain & Ireland, and subsequently Imperial Tobacco Group plc) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational tobacco company headquartered in Bristol, England. It is ...

and W.D. & H.O. Wills on 24 August 1910 as a British-owned company registered in

. Since the company was primarily based on agricultural resources, it ventured into partnerships in 1911 with farmers from the southern part of India to source leaf tobacco. Under the company's umbrella, the "Indian Leaf Tobacco Development Company Limited" was formed in Guntur district of

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

in 1912. The first cigarette factory of the company was set up in 1913 in Bangalore. In 1928, construction began for the company's headquarters, the 'Virginia House' at Calcutta. ITC acquired

Carreras Tobacco Company The House of Carreras was a tobacco business established in London in the nineteenth century by Don José Carreras Ferrer, a nobleman from Spain. It remained an independent company until merging with Rothmans of Pall Mall in November 1958. In ...

's factory at Kidderpore in 1935 to further strengthen its presence. ITC helped set up an indigenous cigarette tissue-paper-making plant in 1946 to reduce import costs significantly. Then, a factory for printing and packaging was set up in Madras in 1949. The company acquired the manufacturing business of Tobacco Manufacturers (India) Limited and the complementary lithographic printing business of Printers (India) Limited in 1953.

Name

Established in 1910 as the Imperial Tobacco Company of India Limited, the company was renamed as the India Tobacco Company Limited in 1970 and later to I.T.C. Limited in 1974. In 2001 the company was renamed ITC Limited, where "ITC" is no longer an

acronym An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial Letter (alphabet), letter of each wor ...

Shareholding and listings

ITC's equity shares are listed on

Bombay Stock Exchange BSE Limited, also known as the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), is an Indian stock exchange based in Mumbai. It is the 6th largest stock exchange in the world by total market capitalization, exceeding $5 trillion in May 2024. Established with t ...

(BSE),

National Stock Exchange of India National Stock Exchange of India Limited, also known as the National Stock Exchange (NSE), is an Indian stock exchange based in Mumbai. It is the List of stock exchanges, 5th largest stock exchange in the world by total market capitalization, ...

(NSE) and Calcutta Stock Exchange (CSE). The company's

Global Depository Receipt A global depository receipt (GDR and sometimes spelled ''depositary'') is a general name for a depositary receipt where a certificate issued by a depository bank, which purchases Share (finance), shares of foreign companies, creates a Security ( ...

s (GDRs) are listed on the

Luxembourg Stock Exchange The Luxembourg Stock Exchange, LuxSE () is based in Luxembourg City at 35A boulevard Joseph II. The chairman of the board is Alain Kinsch and the chief executive officer is Julie Becker. History A law establishing a stock exchange in Luxemb ...

. ITC is a constituent of two major stock market indices of India: BSE SENSEX and

NIFTY 50 The NIFTY 50 is an Indian stock market index that represents the Capitalization-weighted index#Free-float weighting, float-weighted average of 50 of the largest Indian companies listed on the National Stock Exchange of India, National Stock E ...

of NSE. In July 2023, ITC Limited's board of directors approved the demerger of its hotel business and the formation of a wholly owned subsidiary called ITC Hotels. The demerger came in to effect on 1 January 2025. As of March 2024,

British American Tobacco British American Tobacco p.l.c. (BAT) is a British multinational company that manufactures and sells cigarettes, tobacco and other nicotine products including electronic cigarettes. The company, established in 1902, is headquartered in London, E ...

is the largest shareholder in the company with a 25.5% stake, followed by Life Insurance Corporation of India which holds 15.2%.

Employees

As per the annual report of the company, ITC had more than 28,000 employees as of 31 March 2020. ITC's former chairman and CEO Yogesh Chander Deveshwar (d. 2019) is a recipient of

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan (IAST: ''Padma Bhūṣaṇa'', lit. 'Lotus Decoration') is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 Januar ...

from the Government of India; he was named the seventh-best-performing CEO in the world by ''

Harvard Business Review ''Harvard Business Review'' (''HBR'') is a general management magazine published by Harvard Business Publishing, a not-for-profit, independent corporation that is an affiliate of Harvard Business School. ''HBR'' is published six times a year ...

'' in 2013. Meera Shankar, Indian ambassador to the USA between 2009 and 2011, joined the board of ITC Limited in 2012 as the first woman director in its history. She is an additional non-executive director of the company. Sanjiv Puri is the Chairman & Managing Director of ITC Limited. Puri was appointed as a Wholetime Director on the Board of ITC with effect from 6 December 2015, Chief Executive Officer in February 2017 and re-designated as the Managing Director in May 2018. He was appointed as the Chairman effective 13 May 2019. Sanjiv Puri is also the president of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for 2024-25.

Cultural initiatives

ITC founded and runs the

ITC Sangeet Research Academy ITC Sangeet Research Academy is a Hindustani classical music academy run by the corporate house, ITC Ltd. It is located in Kolkata, India. Noted musicians associated with the academy include Ulhas Kashalkar, Falguni Mitra, Ajoy Chakrabarty, ...

in 1978 to promote

Hindustani classical music Hindustani classical music is the Indian classical music, classical music of the Indian subcontinent's northern regions. It may also be called North Indian classical music or ''Uttar Bhartiya shastriya sangeet''. The term ''shastriya sangeet'' ...

. The Academy is based in Kolkata.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Itc Limited BSE SENSEX NIFTY 50 Tobacco companies of India Companies based in Kolkata Conglomerate companies established in 1910 Indian companies established in 1910 Food and drink companies of India ITC Limited Companies listed on the National Stock Exchange of India Companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange