IMT

Industry: Imperial Tobacco certainly knows its tobacco
Company website:http://www.imperial-tobacco.com

Imperial Tobacco Group Plc is the world number four in the cigarette manufacture and distribution sector. Its brands are divided into several ranges so as to reach a wide a market as possible. They include Embassy and Regal, Davidoff (so-called "luxury" cigarettes), SuperKings and John Player Specials (mid-priced), and Lambert & Butler (more cheaply priced).However the group's business does not focus solely on cigarettes. Imperial Tobacco also produces cigars, pipe tobacco brands, and is also the world leader in hand-rolling tobacco with the Drum brand. Not to mention RIZLA, making the firm a giant in the cigarette paper market too.Thus dominating the tobacco market, Imperial Tobacco pursues an aggressive expansion strategy. Other than its large European market, the group has taken over the Horizon, John Brandon and Peter Stuyvesant brands, which has taken it into the Australian and New Zealand markets, and bought out Tobaccor, the second biggest cigarette producer in Sub-Saharan Africa, giving it a firm foothold on the African continent and in Madagascar.Finally, Imperial Tobacco acquired the licence to distribute Marlboro (Philip Morris group) in the United Kingdom and in 2002 it took over the German cigarette firm (the world's fourth biggest manufacturer) Reemtsma, thus strengthening its position in Central and Eastern Europe.