The R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (RJR) is an American tobacco manufacturing company based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Founded by namesake R. J. Reynolds in 1875,[1] it is the largest tobacco company in the United States. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Reynolds American, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of British American Tobacco.
RJR has a large brand portfolio, which includes Camel, Newport, Doral, Eclipse, Kent, and Pall Mall. Other brands commercialized in the past included Barclay, Belair, and Real.
History
Early history
The son of a tobacco farmer in Virginia, Richard Joshua "R. J." Reynolds sold his shares of his father's company in Patrick County, Virginia, and ventured to the nearest town with a railroad connection, Winston-Salem, to start his own tobacco company.[3] He bought his first factory building from the Moravian Church and established the "little red factory" with seasonal workers. The first year, he produced 150,000 lb of tobacco; by the 1890s, production had increased to several million pounds per year.[3] The company's factory buildings were the largest buildings in Winston-Salem, with new technologies such as steam power and electric lights.[3] The second primary factory building was the oldest Reynolds factory still standing and was sold to Forsyth County in 1990.[3]
Marketing, sponsorships and criticisms
From 1972, R. J. Reynolds was a title sponsor of the NHRA Winston Drag Racing Series, the NASCAR Winston Cup Series and until, the IMSA Camel GT for sportscars.
The NHRA sponsorship lasted up to 2001, before a new governing rule called the Master Settlement Agreement, which restricted R. J. Reynolds to one sponsorship of a sporting event; the company sponsored NASCAR up to 2003.
The Lotus Formula One team was sponsored by Camel from 1987 until 1990.
RJR brand Winston was a sponsor of the 1982 FIFA World Cup whilst fellow RJR brand Camel was a sponsor of the 1986 FIFA World Cup.[23]
In late 2005, R. J. Reynolds opened the
Early knowledge of the harms of cigarettes
By 1953, R. J. Reynolds held an internal belief that cigarettes caused cancer.[26] On February 2 of that year, R. J. Reynolds research chemist and executive Claude Teague released 'Survey of Cancer Research', a confidential internal document for R. J. Reynolds upper management.[27] He concluded that clinical data was confirming the fact that tobacco was "an important etiologic factor in the induction of primary cancer of the lung". He also wrote that many findings of animal studies "would seem to indicate the presence of carcinogens".[28]
Lawsuits
In May 2011, a Miami-Dade Circuit jury awarded Julie Reese, an 82-year-old Cape Coral smoker represented by The Ferraro Law Firm, a total verdict of $1 million from R. J. Reynolds Tobacco, after she developed laryngeal cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The jury found Reynolds to be negligent, guilty of fraud by concealment and fraud conspiracy, and guilty of placing a defective product on the market.[30][31]
On February 25, 2020, Chief Judge Rodney Gilstrap of the United States District for the Eastern District of Texas determined that Reynolds remained liable for its full portion of an annual $8 billion settlement payment based on a settlement agreement that Reynolds reached with the State of Texas in 1998.[32] Reynolds had previously claimed that its divestiture of several brands to Imperial Tobacco Group Brands, LLC had extinguished its obligation to make payments for those brands under the 1998 Settlement Agreement. Chief Judge Gilstrap disagreed in a 92-page memorandum opinion and order, finding that Reynolds's position was "oppressive, inequitable, and unreasonable" in addition to being contrary to governing law.[33]
Brands
R. J. Reynolds brands include Newport, Camel, Doral, Eclipse, Kent and Pall Mall. Brands still manufactured but no longer receiving significant marketing support include Capri, Carlton, GPC, Lucky Strike, Misty, Monarch, More, Now, Old Gold, Tareyton, Vantage, and Viceroy. Discontinued brands include Barclay
Facilities
Downtown
R. J. Reynolds built the "Little Red Factory" in 1892. It was uncertain whether it was torn down or made a part of Building 256-1, one of several red brick buildings on Chestnut Street built between 1911 and 1925. Much of the Building 256 complex burned in one of the city's worst fires ever on August 27, 1998, when the former factories were being renovated for Piedmont Triad Research Park. Albert Hall, or Building 256-9, was made of concrete and did not burn but had smoke damage; it was used for training until 1990 and was being renovated in 1998.
In 1916, the first of five buildings known as Plant 64 between Fourth and Fifth Streets was built.[37] The 400,000-square-foot Plant 64 was the oldest remaining Reynolds plant when it was renovated at a cost of $55 million into 242 apartments, with the first residents moving in on July 1, 2014.[38][39]
The last building used for making cigarettes downtown was Building No. 12 across Second Street from the Building 256 complex, which
See also
- List of tobacco-related topics
- Cigarette
Bibliography
- Collins, Kristin. "Farm union targets RJR". News & Observer. October 27, 2007.
- Tilley, Nannie M. The R. J. Reynolds tobacco company (UNC Press Books, 1985) online, a major scholarly history
External links
References
- Frank Tursi, Susan E. White and Steve McQuilkin. In the Belly of the Beast Winston-Salem Journal, 1999^
- Who We Are rjrt.com, Reynolds American, 2010, retrieved 30 May 2010^
- Frank Tursi. Winston-Salem: A History John F. Blair, publisher, 1994^