Imperial Tobacco

About Imperial Tobacco

Imperial Tobacco Limited is the United Kingdom manufacturing and operating company of the Imperial Brands group, registered in England as company 01860181, active, based at 121 Winterstoke Road, Bristol, and registered for the wholesale of tobacco products.^[1] It holds LEI 2138001FO7RFHCTSZC71 at the same address.^[2] Companies House records its controlling shareholder as the intermediate holding company Imperial Tobacco Holdings Limited, company 03087180, with 75 per cent or more of the shares since 6 April 2016,^[3] and GLEIF names Imperial Brands PLC as both its direct accounting parent and its ultimate parent.^[4] It is not the same company as Imperial Brands PLC, which is the listed group parent, company 03236483, incorporated on 6 August 1996 and named Imperial Tobacco Group PLC until February 2016; the two share the Bristol address and the group still trades under the Imperial Tobacco name, which is why the pair look alike.^[4][5]

This registration is younger than the name it carries: Companies House shows it incorporated on 1 November 1984 as Perthpark Limited and renamed Imperial Tobacco Limited on 10 September 1986.^[1] The Imperial Tobacco Company was formed in Bristol in 1901 from an amalgamation of British tobacco firms, and when it renamed itself Imperial Group in 1973 its tobacco products continued to be sold by a newly formed subsidiary named Imperial Tobacco Limited.^[5] Wikipedia names Imperial Tobacco as the owner and manufacturer of the British value brand Richmond, the group's United Kingdom operating company being this one.^[6] Two unrelated firms share the name: Imperial Tobacco Canada Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of British American Tobacco with no relationship to the group since 1980,^[7] and the former Imperial Tobacco Company of India, now ITC Limited.^[5]