UST Inc.

Quality 0.50 · 1 view · Updated 2 months ago

title: "UST Inc." type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["tobacco-companies-of-the-united-states", "holding-companies-of-the-united-states", "holding-companies-established-in-1986", "2009-mergers-and-acquisitions", "companies-based-in-stamford,-connecticut", "altria-subsidiaries"] topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UST_Inc." license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox company"]

Field	Value
name	UST Inc.
logo	UST logo.png
logo_size	200px
successor	Altria
foundation	1986
defunct	2009
location	Stamford, Connecticut, USA
key_people	Murray S. Kessler, Executive Chairman, CEO, President, & COO
industry	Tobacco products
products	Smokeless tobacco, wine
revenue	$1.48 billion USD (2007)
num_employees	4,610 (2007)
::

UST Inc. was a holding company, the biggest producer of snuff and chewing tobacco, whose subsidiaries included U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company and International Wine & Spirits Ltd., which in turn is a holding company of Chateau Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, a vintner of premium wines. On January 6, 2009, UST Inc. was purchased by Altria.

History

United States Tobacco Co. existed before the American Tobacco Co. acquisition. UST was founded as the United States Tobacco Co. in 1911, Richmond, Va., after the US Supreme Court dissolved the American Tobacco Company trust as a monopoly and in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890. Weyman-Bruton Company incorporates in 1911, acquires the United States Tobacco Company in 1921 and becomes the United States Tobacco Company in 1922, relocates from New York City to Greenwich, Connecticut in 1970, later creating the holding company in 1986. The company is incorporated in Delaware, and in the fall of 2006 announced it would move its headquarters from Greenwich, Connecticut to Stamford, Connecticut.

It operated a video company Cabin Fever Entertainment, which was in existence for ten years from 1988 to 1998, as well as a video branch Razzmatazz Entertainment, which was in operation from 1996 to 1998 mostly to release kids videos, and feature film distributor Cabin Fever Films, which was mainly used to distribute feature films for the theatrical market. In 1998, both video subsidiaries were folded into Hallmark Home Entertainment.

In 2005, UST was among 53 entities that contributed the maximum of $250,000 to the second inauguration of President George W. Bush.

UST reported having an average of 5,111 employees in 2005. That year, UST had a $534 million profit on sales of $1.85 billion.

On November 2, 2006, UST promoted president and chief operating officer Murray S. Kessler to chief executive officer effective January 1, 2007. Vincent Gierer Jr., who had been CEO since 1993, remained chairman of the board of directors.

UST manufactures smokeless tobacco in Nashville, Tennessee; Hopkinsville, Kentucky; and Franklin Park, Illinois. It also owns vineyards in Washington state and California.

UST held 62.4 percent of the smokeless tobacco market as of the third quarter of 2006, according to an Oct. 26, 2006 report by Morningstar. UST's primary competitors include the American Snuff Company subsidiary of Reynolds American, and Swedish Match.

Effective January 6, 2009, Altria acquired all outstanding shares of UST Inc. (UST), shareholders of UST are entitled to receive $69.50 in cash without interest and less any applicable withholding tax, for each share of common stock held at the effective time of the merger.

References

"UST : Summary for ProShares Ultra 7-10 Year Treas - Yahoo Finance".
"UST Profile - ProShares Ultra 7-10 Year Treas Stock - Yahoo Finance".
"Articles about United States Tobacco Co - latimes".
"United States Smokeless Tobacco Company - SourceWatch".
Beck, Joan. (19 May 1996). "TOBACCO COMPANIES ARE LOUSY CORPORATE CITIZENS".
(13 October 2018). "United States Tobacco Journal". BMT Publications.
"Investment Grade Collectibles at Auction".
Borio, Gene. (13 October 2018). "Tobacco History".
"UST Inc. -- Company History".
"1956 Ad United States Tobacco Co King Sano Cigarettes - ORIGINAL ADVERTISING TM6".
""United States Tobacco Co." Letterhead Invoices Copenhagen & More 4 Invoices - eBay".
Miller, Stephen. (19 October 2010). "U.S. Tobacco's Chief Made Dipping Hip". The Wall Street Journal.
(2016). "Tobacco industry use of flavourings to promote smokeless tobacco products". Tobacco Control.
"1942 Ad Model Pipe Smoking United States Tobacco WWII Navy Sailor Wartime LF4".
"U.S. Tobacco boosts price on chewing tobacco".
"1.87.168 - Can, Tobacco (9345) - Artifacts from our Collection - Waseca County History Center".
(1988-08-13). "...newsline...".
Applefield Olsen, Catherine. (1996-08-17). "Home Video".
Sandler, Adam. (1993-11-05). "Feature fever hits vid's Cabin".
Goldstein, Seth. (1998-03-21). "Handleman Loses Handle On Video; Hallmark Gets A Case Of Cabin Fever".
Drinkard, Jim. (2005-01-17). "Donors get good seats, great access this week". USA Today.
(2005-01-16). "Financing the inauguration". USA Today.
(2005-01-14). "Some question inaugural's multi-million price tag". USA Today.
(April 2023). "Wayback Machine has not archived that URL.".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::