Tobacco Institute
1955 Annual Report Liggett & Myers Tobacco Co.
Fields
Annotations
- 1. Liggett Myers Author
- Affiliation:
Liggett Myers
- Affiliation:
Document Images
Annzfal
Stockholders'
Meeting
T HE Annual Stockholders' Meeting will be held at
43 Park Avenue, Flemington, New Jersey, at 2:00
P.M., Monday, March 12, 1956.
Proxies will be mailed to stockholders February 10,
1956. Stockholders who are unable to attend the meet-
ing are urged to sign their proxy and return it promptly
to the Company so that the stock of the Company will
be represented as fully as possible at the meeting.
TIMN 446294
L I G G E T T & .ll Y E R S -~- 0 NE 0 F

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Highli(; lit,~
1955
Net sales ................................................$546,964,616
Profit from operations ............................ 60,134,062
Percentage of net sales ............................ 10.99%
Profit before taxes .................................. 56,677,972
Income and franchise taxes .................... 29,957,000
Profit before preferred dividends............ 26,720,972
Net income after preferred dividends...... 25,259,785
Percentage of net sales ............................ 4.62 %
Net income per share of common stock $6.46
Dividends paid per share of
common stock .................................. $4.00
Current assets ........................................$425,252,089
Current liabilities .................................. 92,453,907
Ratio .................................................... 4.6 to 1
Funded debt .................................... °.
~... 107,250,000
Capital stock .......................................... 118, 662,125
Paid-in surplus end of year ...................... 19,364,550
Earned surplus end of year ...................... 120,861,562
(Further details on pages 14, 15, 16 and 17)
Approximate number of Ntockholders.... 43,700
LIGGET T & .ll YERS
,-00~
1954
$548,861,959
53,592,624
9.76%
47,835,364
25,634,000
22,201,364
20,740,177
3.78%
$5.30
$5.00
$459,145,998
129,034,362
3.6 to 1
1 13,1)00,000
1 18,662,125
19,364,550
111,247,861
40,900
O N E O F
TIMN 446296

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Distribution
and
Promotion
Distribution is the keystone in the sale of "mass" merchandise to the
public. Promotion creates the desire to buy, but it is of no avail if the goods
advertised are not on the shelves.
Liggett & Myers' products are now sold to the domestic public by almost
one million four hundred thousand retail outlets from roadside stands to
shopping center super markets. This width of distribution has been achieved
by the unceasing efforts of our six thousand distributors and the Company's
own sales force. Each year this distribution widens, paralleling population
increases, area by area.
Brand preferences vary from year to year as styles and tastes change, so
promotion must not only be aggressive but continuous in order to reach again
and again, the present and potential consumer in every corner of the United
States. Almost every type of media (television, radio, newspapers, magazines,
car cards and point-of-sale material) is used to keep present customers, and
to attract new smokers.
As distribution increases in new areas, so does promotion. Therefore,
through expanding advertising, consumers in areas not previously reached by
your Company's radio and TV advertising now receive sales messages on
Liggett & Myers' brands.
Overseas, many of your Company's products have achieved wide popu-
larity. Chesterfields are now distributed in 86 countries outside of the United
States. In the majority of these, L&M Filters are also sold.
TIMN 446299
"OBA CCO'S i1OST RESPECTED NAMES
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LIGGETT & MYERS TOBACCO Go.
INC.
630 Fifth Avenue
New York 20, N. Y
45th Annual Report
December 31S ;1935
r TOBACCO'S MOST RESPECTED
NAMES
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TIMN 446295

To the
Stockholders
Earnings
Sales
This is the 45th time that your Company has made its annual report to
you. The following has been prepared to give you an overall picture of your
Company's operations and financial affairs in 1955.
Earnings per share of Common Stock were substantially higher than for
the previous year, amounting to $25,259,785 compared with $20,740,177 for
1954. The ratio of profit from operations to net sales increased from 9.76%
to 10.99% in 1955.
Earnings for the year included special items of $839,184 and $1,066,124
shown separately on the Consolidated Income statement. The item of $1,066,124
represents the balance of the reserve of $4,473,163 (established in 1942 to
provide for possible loss on our investment in a foreign tobacco company)
after deducting the actual loss from sale of such investment in 1955. This
transaction also resulted in a tax credit in an amount more than sufficient to
offset any capital gains tax otherwise payable on profit from sale of land and
buildings during the year.
For 1955, net sales were $546,964,616 compared to $548,861,959 for
the previous year-down slightly. The volume in L&M Filters increased sharply.
Sales began to show a definite upturn in the third quarter. In the fourth
quarter, your Company's sales showed an increase of more than 6% over the
fourth quarter of 1954.
700
600
Millions This chart shows a record of the Company's sales for the past ten years.
500
400
300
200
100
0
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
'TOBACCO'S R1OST RESPECTED NAMES
1954
1955
TIMN 446297

Dividends
Taxes
Four quarterly dividends of $1.00 each per share of Common Stock were
paid during the year. Effective with the year 1955, your Company reverted to
its original plan of taking action with respect to extra dividends in the follow-
ing January after final results for the year are known. Therefore, on January
18, 1956 an extra dividend of $1.00 per share, payable March 1, was declared.
There has been no decrease in the tax burden placed on cigarettes and
other tobacco products during the year just past, in fact the trend is upward.
Your Company has provided $29,957,000 for Federal and State income and
franchise taxes for 1955. This amounts to $7.66 per share of Common Stock -
an outlay of 91 % more than the total amount of dividends declared on the
Common Stock during 1955.
Few people realize the immensity of the tax load incurred by a manu-
facturer of tobacco products, so the following chart has been prepared to give
a graphic comparison of Federal and State income taxes and franchise taxes
with net income after taxes for the past eight years.
1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955
This chart shows the Federal and State Income and Franchise Taxes (dark area)
compared with Net Income after Taxes (light area) 1948-1955.
TIMN 446298
LIGGETT & !lI Y E R S -~ O'V F. O F
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Research
In research lies the key to quality. This is a fundamental manufacturing
philosophy of Liggett & Myers, gained through thirty-three years of leadership
in the scientific study of tobacco, its growth, uses and processing.
The first small project in tobacco research which started in 1922 at
Duke University, has grown, in the succeeding years, into one of the most
important activities of your Company. Liggett & Myers' research program
centers around its Durham, N. C., laboratory which is considered to be the
best in the industry. Grants to universities for tobacco research and the use
of outside scientific consultants, such as Arthur D. Little Inc., further imple-
ment this program.
Your Company believes that through research it produces the highest
quality tobacco products now being marketed. Furthermore, research has
resulted in a permanent control of quality - something no other manufacturer
of cigarettes has yet achieved - through the use of the amazing new Accu-
Ray control.
Acclz-Ray
The use of Accu-Ray by Liggett & Myers represents the greatest advance
in the manufacture of cigarettes in the last thirty years. Each and every Chester-
field is perfectly packed . .. 14% more so than cigarettes made without Accu-
Ray. As a result, they burn more evenly, have no hot spots or hard draw, and
smoke milder.
The Accu-Ray was developed by the Industrial Nucleonics Corporation.
It is really a nuclear gauge which passes a continuous stream of electrons
through the cigarette and analyzes it while it is actually being made. This
nuclear stream transmits what it sees to the electronic brain which adjusts the
production machinery down to millionths of an inch. Accu-Ray controls are
now used by such industrial giants as: U. S. Steel, International and St. Regis
Paper Companies: Goodrich, Firestone and Goodyear Rubber Companies; the
Du Pont Company and a host of others. Illustrated on the next page is the
Accu-Ray quality control as used by Liggett & Myers.
TIMN 446300
6
LIGGETT & .11 YERS
.-..~.
O N E O F

I
111anageinent
Changes
Stockholders
The Company's cigarette factories are the most modern in the industry
and are air-conditioned, well-lighted and designed to guard safety and health.
Cafeterias for employees provide excellent meals at very moderate prices.
There was only one important change in management personnel during
1955. Milton E. Harrington, Manager of the Leaf Department, was elected a
Director to fill the vacancy on the Board created by the retirement, under the
Employees' Retirement Plan, of James E. Farley.
There are now approximately 43,700 Common and Preferred stock-
holders. This is an increase of 2800 stockholders (about 7% ).
The stock of your Company is widely held, ranging from a few shares in
the hands of thousands of stockholders to many hundreds of shares owned by
investment groups, educational institutions, insurance companies, trusts,
estates and banks.
Approximately 80% of the total stock of your Company, both Common
and Preferred, was voted, either by person or by proxy, at the last annual
stockholders' meeting of Liggett & Myers on March 14th, 1955.
,:
TIMN 446303
TOB:-1CCO'S .11 0 ST RESPECTED NAMES

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Net profits for the year increased by $4,519,608. A portion of this came
from non-recurring items of income. The higher selling price of Chesterfield
King Size cigarettes, in effect part of the year, resulted in a better profit margin
on this brand. Other factors which helped were reduction in expenses by pro-
viding more efficient manufacturing facilities, adoption of a direct deposit
plan resulting in a quicker conversion of sales receipts into usable funds, and
by working more closely with our customers.
The market trend in 1955 continued toward king size and filter tip
cigarettes. Following this trend, King Size Chesterfield sales continued upward
and the sales of L&M more than doubled. Necessarily, the increase in the
sales of king size and filter tips was made at the expense of regular size
cigarettes.
During the year, Liggett & Myers continued and intensified the moderni-
zation program which has been underway for some time. Our products today
are the best that we have ever made and we are confident that new improve-
ments to come will continue to offer smokers a better product.
The Management greatly appreciates the cooperation and loyal support
of its stockholders and employees.
January 27, 1956
TIMN 446306
12
LIGGETT & J1 Y E R S
..W.--
O N E O F

Of,icers
Directors
President
Vice President
Vice President
Vice President & Treasurer
Vice President & Secretary
Vice President
Russell M. Chenoweth
Frederick J. Graeff
William A. Blount
Lawrence W. Bruff
Benjamin F. Few
Milton E. Harrington
Francis H. Horan
J. Camden Hundley
Benjamin F. Few
William A. Blount
William B. Lewis, Jr.
William L. Perry
Zach Toms
James N. Wellman
Assistant Treasurer
J. Bowling Anderson
Assistant Secretaries
Henry A. Petry
Rufus H. Hosea
Charles B. Morganthaler
William B. Lewis, Jr.
William L. Perry
Eugene C. Ringler
Loy D. Thompson
Zach Toms
James N. Wellman
GENERAL COUNSEL
Francis H. Horan
DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH
Dr. Frederick R. Darkis
EXECUTIVE OFFICES
630 Fifth Avenue, New York 20, N. Y.
TRANSFER AGENT
Chemical Corn Exchange Bank
30 Broad St., New York 15, N. Y.
AUDITOR
Eugene C. Ringler
REGISTRAR
The First National City Bank of New York
55 Wall St., New York 15, N. Y.
TIMN 446307
!'OBA CCO'S .11OST RESPECTED
NAMES
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