Tobacco Documents Online

TOBACCO REPORTER / AUGUST 1973 OUTLOO( i BAT'wins' Late last month British-American Tobacco Company's subsidiary,, International supermarket Stores Ltd., won its takeover battie to acquire the Pricerire supermarket chain for roughly $30 miPlion. The taheover srruggle ended when another contender for the supermarket ended' its l 1-w•eek battle for control. A week earlier, despite the takeover battle, BAT stated it hnd purchased control of 47 per cent of Pricerite's shares. Meanwhile, the Commission of the European Common Market formally requested greater authority to curb mergers between large firms which would require advance notification of a merger between concerns with combined annual sales of $1.2 billion or more. Notification would also be required in cases where such combinations could dominate the market. Such diversification was the main reason for the British Tobacco Company (Aus- tralia) to change its name (see page 55) to Amatil, an acronym for Allied Manufacrur- ing and Trade Industries. And diversification was the name of the game when Gulf + Western Industries reported a 41 per cent increase in its third quarter net income (see page 55). Record nets Second quarter profits rose about six per cent at R. J. Reynolds and nearly and sales I1 per cent at American Tobacco. Record earn:ings were also reported in the first half of the year by the two U.S. tobacco giants: In England, the pre-tax profits for the Imperial Group were reported up 20 per cent (see page 51). However, in India it appeared to be a different story as Godfrey Phillips India Ltd. reported its net profits dropped to four million rupees (see page 53). Legal marijuana A preliminary study conducted in the United States indicates that about 22 per 'tropping' up cent of drivers killed in automobile accidents had used marijuana shortly before death. It was pointed out by one of the researchers that there were no figures to indicate any causative effect between drug use and fataI accidents because they are still "tentative." In Alaska, the state's lawyers have agreed to support legislation to decrimi- nalize the use of marijuana. In California, the Assembly has given approval to a bill that lowers the penalty for smoking marijuana from a possible felony to a , rtisdemeanor (see page 47). A week or two later in another part of the state a move was started to have a state-wide vote on the matter this fall. A similar _ move was defeated by voters last year. Smoking youth The sixth annual survey of public school students showed the use of tobacco and ? study updated marijuana on an increase (see page 47). More than half of the males from the ninth grade up said they tried marijuana and 32 per cent of the seniors reported they were frequent users. In the Philippines, work is underway to make it unlawful for minors to smoke or sell tobacco products (see page 50 ). Ultramodern United States Tobacco's subsidiary of Henry, Leonard & Tbomas, Inc., pipe plant manufacturers of Dr. Grabov%• Pre-Smoked pipes, is getting read), to build a new ultra.tnodern~ manufacturing facility in Sparta, North Carolina. The new plant will more than double the present space and should be completed by early 1974. In Richmond, Virginia, work on the Philip Morris cigarette manufacturing plant was halted when about 40 sheetmetal workers walked off the job in a dispute with iron~ workers over job jurisdiction. In nearby Petersburg, workers at Brown & Williamson's plant have ended up with a 13-week "vacation" from health insurance premium pay- ments because of good "experience" with the policy (see page 55). iD374$0~° Short courses The International Microwave Power Institute will be holding its 03 and exposition symposium on microwave power and short courses September 10-13 at the Uni- versity of Technology in Loughborough, England ... Speakers from throughout the United States and Canada will be on hand at the second International Pollution Engineering Congress and Exposition that has been set for October 22 at Pbila- delphia, Pennsylvania's Civic Center.