|
Brown & Williamson was an American tobacco company and subsidiary of the giant British American Tobacco, that produced several popular cigarette brands. It became infamous as the focus of investigations for chemically enhancing the addictiveness of cigarettes. Its former vice-president of research and development, Jeffrey Wigand, was the whistleblower in an investigation conducted by CBS news program ''60 Minutes'', an event that was dramatized in the film ''The Insider''. Wigand claimed that B&W had introduced chemicals such as ammonia into cigarettes to increase nicotine delivery and increase addictiveness. Brown & Williamson had its headquarters at Louisville, Kentucky, until July 30, 2004, when the U.S. operations of Brown & Williamson merged with R.J. Reynolds, creating a new publicly traded parent company, Reynolds American Inc. B&W was also involved in genetically modifying tobacco (notably the controversial Y1 strain).〔http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/280/13/1173 JAMA (1998)280:1173-1181〕 ==History== Brown & Williamson was founded in Winston (today's Winston-Salem), North Carolina, as a partnership of George T. Brown and his brother-in-law Robert Lynn Williamson, whose father was already operating two chewing tobacco manufacturing facilities.〔Robert Lynn Williamson's uncle James Nathaniel Williamson also became a prominent North Carolina businessman. After marrying the daughter of textile pioneer Edwin M. Holt, James Williamson became a principal in the Holt family textile interests and among the leading North Carolina businessmen of his time.()〕 Initially, the new partnership took over one of the elder Williamson's factories.〔(Thomas Farish Williamson, father of Robert Lynn Williamson, Caswell County Notable People, hosted by rootsweb.com )〕 In February 1894 the new company, calling itself Brown & Williamson, hired 30 workers and began manufacturing in a leased facility. In 1927 the Brown and Williamson families sold the business to London-based British American Tobacco. The business was reorganized as the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation. Manufacturing and distribution were expanded, and work on a new B&W factory in Louisville was begun. On April 26, 1994, B.A.T. Industries PLC announced an agreement to buy American Tobacco Company for $1 billion. On October 31, 1994, the Federal Trade Commission filed suit federal court in Manhattan to stop the deal. An April 1995 consent order required that to prevent antitrust violations, Brown & Williamson had 12 months to sell its Reidsville, North Carolina, plant and nine of the brands acquired in the American Tobacco purchase. Lorillard Tobacco Company agreed on November 28, 1995, to buy the six discount brands (Montclair, Malibu, Riviera, Crown's, Special 10's and Bull Durham) but not the three premium brands (Tareyton, Silva Thins and Tall). In an out-of-court settlement in December 1995, the FTC also required Brown & Williamson to sell the Reidsville plant, but Lorillard did not want it and the company decided to close it.〔 The FTC rejected the Lorillard deal on April 10, 1996,〔 and B.A.T. and Brown & Williamson agreed July 25, 1996, to sell the six discount brands to Commonwealth Tobacco, LLC, a subsidiary of Commonwealth Brands, described as "a small cigarette maker based in Bowling Green, Ky., specializing in low-priced, unadvertised brands."〔 The deal would require FTC approval.〔 Commonwealth Brands, which would also buy the Reidsville plant, started as Commonwealth Tobacco Company in 1991 and changed its name in November of that year,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Company Overview of Commonwealth Brands, Inc. )〕 and is now part of Imperial Tobacco.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Commonwealth Brands, Inc. Company Information )〕 B.A.T. and Brown & Williamson claimed that since Commonwealth was not one of the five major U.S. cigarette companies, it would meet requirements that Lorillard did not, particularly since Commonwealth would be more likely to compete as a discount manufacturer. The FTC approved the $36 million deal in October. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Brown & Williamson」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|