Svetlana Nicolaeva

Until a spin-off in March 2008, Philip Morris International was an operating company of Altria. Altria explained the spin-off, arguing PMI would have more "freedom," i.e. leeway outside the responsibilities and standards of American corporate ownership in terms of potential litigation and legislative restrictions to "pursue sales growth in emerging markets", while Altria focuses on the American domestic market. The shareholders in Altria at the time were given shares in PMI, which was listed on the London Stock Exchange and other markets.

The company's legal seat is in Stamford, Connecticut but it does not operate in the United States of America. Philip Morris USA, a subsidiary of PMI's former owner American parent Altria group, owns the Philip Morris brands there. Operational headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland.

With tobacco being addictive and the single greatest cause of preventable death globally, the company is highly controversial, not least because of its history of obfuscating scientific evidence around the health impacts of smoking. It has been the subject of litigation and restrictive legislation from governments.

In response to awareness of the harm to health of cigarettes, PMI has declared on its homepage the intention to replace cigarettes with smoke-free products, and to "switch ... adult smokers" to these products as the first phase of a business strategy, as a decision for the benefit of "adult smokers" and the company's shareholders and employees.

With the world-wide decrease in smoking prevalence in the 21st century, shares of Philip Morris were no longer considered the "safe haven" they once were. However, it has to be noted that the absolute number of smokers continues to increase. The company ranked No. 101 in the 2021 Fortune 500 list of the largest corporations by total revenue.

History

The company states its history is traced to a London tobacconist, Philip Morris, opening a single shop on London's Bond Street in 1847 which sold tobacco and cigarettes. In 1881, Philip Morris' son, Leopold Morris, established "Philip Morris & Company and Grunebaum Ltd" with Joseph Grunebaum. In 1885, the company changed its name to "Philip Morris & Co. Ltd."

In 1954, Philip Morris (Australia) became the first affiliate of Philip Morris & Co., Ltd, Inc. outside the U.S. In 1972, the company's Marlboro became the world's top-selling cigarette brand.

In 1987, Philip Morris International (PMI) was incorporated as an operating company of Philip Morris Companies Inc. In 2001, the operations center of the company was transferred from Rye Brook, New York, to Lausanne, Switzerland. On January 27, 2003, Philip Morris Companies Inc. formally changed its name to the Altria Group.[16] In March 2008, Philip Morris International was spun off from Altria.

In April 2014, Philip Morris International announced that it would close its Moorabbin plant in Australia by the end of 2014 after operating for 60 years, due to the gradual decline of sales in the last ten years and difficulties conforming to 2010 Australian government regulation about reducing fire risks. In 2015, the company sold 850 billion cigarettes.

In August 2018 Reuters reported that Philip Morris "has been among foreign companies with exposure to Russia’s tobacco market. The company’s sales exposure to Russia is 7 percent, according to a note from Goldman Sachs."

As of 2019, main institutional investors are The Vanguard Group with an 8% stake, Capital Research & Management with 5% and BlackRock Fund Advisors with 4%.

In July 2021, Philip Morris International agreed to buy Vectura Group for £1 billion.

Kraft Foods Inc. was a multinational confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate. It marketed many brands in more than 170 countries. 12 of its brands annually earned more than $1 billion worldwide: Cadbury, Jacobs, Kraft, LU, Maxwell House, Milka, Nabisco, Oreo, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Trident, and Tang. Forty of its brands were at least a century old.

The company was headquartered in Northfield, Illinois, near Chicago.

Kraft was listed on the New York Stock Exchange and became a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average on September 22, 2008, replacing the American International Group. In August 2011, the company announced plans to split into a North American grocery products business and a faster-growing global snacks company. The snack company, Mondelēz International Inc. is recognized as Kraft Foods' legal successor, while the grocery company was named Kraft Foods, now a part of Kraft Heinz.

History

Kraft Foods, division and brand of Kraft Heinz Company, one of the world’s largest food and beverage manufacturers that was formed by the 2015 merger of Kraft Foods Group and H.J. Heinz Holding Corporation. Kraft Foods’ headquarters are in Northfield, Illinois.

Kraft grew out of a wholesale cheese-delivery business established in Chicago in 1903 by James L. Kraft. Three years later he and his brother Charles began processing cheese for distribution to area retailers. Two other brothers later joined the firm, and in 1909 it was incorporated as J.L. Kraft Bros. & Company. The brothers patented a spoil-resistant processed cheese, which was sold in great quantities to the U.S. Army during World War I. In 1930 the company was acquired by National Dairy Products Corporation (established 1923), which adopted the names Kraftco Corporation in 1969 and Kraft, Inc., in 1976.

In 1980 the company merged with Dart Industries, Inc., a diversified company manufacturing goods including home appliances, plastic products, and batteries. When Kraft, Inc., split off in 1986, it retained the batteries division for two years. Kraft was acquired in 1988 by tobacco giant Philip Morris Companies, which had also purchased General Foods in 1985 and went on to buy Nabisco Holdings in 2000. General Foods’ and Nabisco’s businesses were integrated into the operations of a giant Kraft General Foods, Inc. In 2001, with a partial stock offering, Philip Morris began to sell off its stake in Kraft, and in 2007 Kraft Foods Inc. became a fully independent, publicly traded corporation. (Meanwhile, in 2003, Philip Morris changed its name to Altria Group.) In 2007 Kraft purchased the biscuit division of Groupe Danone, a French company, for more than $7 billion, and in 2010, after lengthy and often contentious negotiations, Kraft purchased Cadbury, a British candy company, for more than $19 billion. Two years later the company reorganized into two separate companies, one selling grocery products in North America (operating under the name Kraft) and the other snack products worldwide (Mondelēz International). In 2015 Kraft’s parent company merged with the H.J. Heinz Holding Corporation. Kraft Foods became a division and brand within the newly formed conglomerate.

Some of Kraft’s most popular products included Kraft cheese, Milka and Toblerone chocolates, Philadelphia cream cheese, Planters nuts, Jell-O desserts, Kool-Aid powdered beverages, Jacobs and Maxwell House coffees, Lu biscuits, Nabisco cookies and crackers, Oscar Mayer meats, and Cadbury Creme Egg and Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolates.

Kovalska Industrial-Construction Group (Ukrainian: Асоціація «Промислово-будівельна група „Ковальська“») is a Ukrainian developer and manufacturer of building materials. The company is part of the Svitlana Kovalska Plant of Reinforced Concrete Structures Joint Stock Company, and at that time the Plant of Reinforced Concrete Products № 3 was founded in 1956.

History

The group's enterprises operate in Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Lviv, Kherson and Chernihiv Oblasts of Ukraine.

The total number of employees is over 4600 people.

The group dates back to 1956, from the date of the founding of the State Plant of Reinforced Concrete Products № 3 in Kyiv, which in 1993 passed the stage of privatization and was renamed into JSC "Kovalska Reinforced Concrete Plant". The company, and later the entire industrial and construction group, was named after Svitlana Kovalska (1938-1993), a scientist who worked at the company for many years and managed it from 1982 to 1993.

Kovalska Industrial-Construction Group products are represented by a number of brands, including "Concrete by Kovalska", pavement tiles "Avenue" and construction mixtures "Siltek".

In 2000, the process of strengthening the raw material base began — the company included LLC "Omelyanivskyi Quarry".

Since 2002, the development direction is represented in the group. Since then, Kovalska has completed 26 housing projects.

In 2002, Kovalska began building housing in Kyiv. The first projects are residential buildings on Bazhan Avenue.

The next step to ensure autonomy and a full cycle of construction works was the accession in 2004 of the largest metropolitan transport company — LLC "Avtobudkomplex-K". Kovalska Logistics was founded on the basis of the motor transport enterprise. In the same year, LLC "Kovalska-Zhytloservis" was established to provide maintenance for the facilities built by Kovalska Industrial-Construction Group.

In 2006, LLC "Kovalska-Project" own project organization was established.

In 2008, Kovalska expanded its line of construction materials production and launched the production of dry construction mixtures under the "Siltek" brand at PJSC "Terminal-M".

In 2013, PJSC "Darnytskyi Plant of Reinforced Concrete Structures" joined the group.

In 2019, the group continued its active regional development and acquired an asset in the Kherson region — "Aerated concrete Kakhovka". Subsequently, the group invested in a production complex in the Lviv region — LLC "Rozvadiv Budmaterialy".

In 2020, Kovalska restarted the development direction, strengthened the team and increased the portfolio of projects, as well as entered the office real estate market, becoming an investor in five new UNIT.City campuses, and she began construction of the Nuvo business park in downtown Kyiv.

Kovalska Industrial-Construction Group is an active member of a number of leading business associations. In particular, it is a member of the Confederation of Builders of Ukraine, the European Business Association, the All-Ukrainian Union of Building Materials Manufacturers, etc. In 2021, the General Director of the group Sergii Pylypenko was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Confederation of Builders of Ukraine, and also headed the Committee on Construction Products of KBU.Kovalska (Ukrainian: Ковальська) or