ITC (company)

ITC Limited

Type	Public
Traded as	BSE: 500875 NSE: ITC BSE SENSEX Constituent CNX Nifty Constituent
Industry	Conglomerate
Predecessor	W.D. & H.O. Wills .
Founded	24 August 1910[1][2] (as Imperial Tobacco Company of India)
Headquarters	Kolkata, West Bengal, India[3]
Key people	Y C Deveshwar(Chairman)
Products	Consumer goods Tobacco Hotels Agribusiness Paperboards & specialty papers Packaging Information technology
Revenue	₹60,493 crore (US$9.4 billion) (2017)[4]
Operating income	₹15,037 crore (US$2.3 billion) (2015)[4]
Net income	₹10,471 crore (US$1.6 billion) (2017)[4]
Total assets	₹32,159 crore (US$5.0 billion) (2015)[4]
Number of employees	25,959 (Mar 2013)[5]
Divisions	ITC Infotech, Surya Nepal Pvt. Ltd.
Website	www.itcportal.com

ITC Limited or ITC is an Indian conglomerate headquartered in Kolkata, West Bengal.^[3] Its diversified business includes five segments: Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), Hotels, Paperboards & Packaging, Agri Business & Information Technology.^[6]

Established in 1910 as the Imperial Tobacco Company of India Limited, the company was renamed as the Indian Tobacco Company Limited in 1970 and further to I.T.C. Limited in 1974. The periods in the name were removed in September 2001 for the company to be renamed as ITC Ltd.^[2] The company completed 100 years in 2010^{[7][8][9][10]} and as of 2012-13, had an annual turnover of US$8.31 billion^[11] and a market capitalization of US$45 billion.^[5] It employs over 25,000 people^[5] at more than 60 locations across India and is part of Forbes 2000 list.

History

ITC was formed on 24 August 1910 under the name of Imperial Tobacco Company of India Limited,^[2] and the company went public on 27 October 1954.^[1] The earlier decades of the company's activities centered mainly around tobacco products. In the 1970s, it diversified into non-tobacco businesses.^[1]

In 1975, the company acquired a hotel in Chennai, which was renamed the ITC-Welcomgroup Hotel Chola' (now renamed to MyFortune, Chennai).^[2]

In 1985, ITC set up Surya Tobacco Co. in Nepal as an Indo-Nepali and British joint venture, with the shares divided between ITC, British American Tobacco and various independent domestic shareholders in Nepal. In 2002, Surya Tobacco became a subsidiary of ITC and its name was changed to Surya Nepal Private Limited.^[12]

In 2000, ITC launched the Expressions range of greeting cards,^[13][14] the Wills Sport range of casual wear,^[15] and a wholly owned information technology subsidiary, ITC Infotech India Limited.^[16]

In 2001, ITC introduced the Kitchens of India brand of ready-to-eat gourmet Indian recipes,^[17][18] which are produced and sold internationally,^[19] at first in cans and later in retort packages, and more recently online^[20] and at festivals.^[21]

In 2002, ITC entered the confectionery and staples segments^[22][23][24] and acquired the Bhadrachalam Paperboards Division^[25] and the safety matches company WIMCO Limited.^[26]

ITC diversified into body care products in 2005.^[27][28]

In 2010, ITC launched its handrolled cigar - Armenteros - in the Indian market.^[29]

The company began online sales in 2014.^[30]

Products and brands

Classic Rich Taste (regular) pack of 20.

Cigarettes

ITC Ltd sells 81 percent of the cigarettes in India, where 275 million people use tobacco products and the total cigarette market is worth close to $6 billion (around Rs. 35,000 crore)^[31][32]

ITC's major cigarette brands include Wills Navy Cut, Gold Flake Kings, Gold Flake Premium lights, Gold Flake Super Star, Insignia, India Kings, Classic (Verve, Menthol, Menthol Rush, Regular, Citric Twist, Ice Burst, Mild & Ultra Mild), 555, Silk Cut, Scissors, Capstan, Berkeley, Bristol, Lucky Strike, Players, Flake and Duke & Royal.^[33][34]

Other businesses

• Foods: Indian Tobacco Company's major food brands include Kitchens of India; Aashirvaad, Mint-o, gum-o, B natural, Sunfeast, Candyman, Bingo! and Yippee!.^[35] ITC is India's largest seller of branded foods with sales of over Rs. 4,600 crore in 2012-13.^[36] It is present across 6 categories in the Foods business namely Staples, Snack Foods, Ready-To-Eat Foods, Juices, Dairy Product and Confectionery.^[35]
• Lifestyle apparel: ITC sells its products under the Wills Lifestyle and John Players brands. Wills Lifestyle was accorded the ‘Superbrand’ status and John Players was included in the top 10 ‘Most Trusted Apparel Brands 2012’ by The Economic Times.^[5]
• Personal care products include perfumes, haircare and skincare categories. Major brands are Fiama Di Wills, Vivel, Essenza Di Wills, Superia and Engage.^[37][38]
• Stationery: Brands include Classmate, PaperKraft and Colour Crew.^[39] Launched in 2003, Classmate went on to become India's largest notebook brand in 2007.^[40][41]
• Safety Matches and Agarbattis: Ship,^[42] i Kno and Aim brands of safety matches^[43] and the Mangaldeep brand of agarbattis (Incense Sticks).^[44]
• Hotels: ITC's Hotels division (under brands including WelcomHotel) is India's second largest hotel chain with over 90 hotels throughout India.^[45] ITC is also the exclusive franchisee in India of two brands owned by Sheraton International Inc. Brands in the hospitality sector owned and operated by its subsidiaries include Fortune Park Hotels and WelcomHeritage Hotels.^[45]
• Paperboard: Products such as specialty paper, graphic and other paper are sold under the ITC brand by the ITC Paperboards and Specialty Papers Division like Classmate product of ITC well known for there quality .^[46]
• Packaging and Printing: ITC's Packaging and Printing division operates manufacturing facilities at Haridwar and Chennai and services domestic and export markets.^[47]
• Information Technology: ITC operates through its fully owned subsidiary ITC Infotech India Limited, which is a SEI CMM Level 5 company.^[48]

Shareholding and listings

ITC's equity shares are listed on Bombay Stock Exchange, National Stock Exchange of India and Calcutta Stock Exchange.^[49][50] The company's Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) are listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.^[51]

Employees

As per the Annual report of the company, it had 25,963 employees as on 31 March 2013,^[5] out of which 3,043 were women.^[11] It spent Rs. 2,145 crores on Employee benefits during the FY 2012-13.^[52] During the same year, its attrition rate was 12%.^[11]

Its Chairman Y C Deveshwar has won renowned awards and recognitions including Padma Bhushan from Govt. of India^[5][53][54] and 7th best performing CEO in the world by Harvard Business Review.^[55]

Meera Shankar, Indian ambassador to the USA between 2009 and 2011, in 2012 joined the board of ITC Limited as the first woman director in its history.^[56] She is an additional non-executive director of the company.^[57]

Outreach

e-Choupal

ITC's e-Choupal initiative is designed to make the power of the Internet available to Indian farmers.^[58] The company places computers with Internet access in rural farming villages, serving both as a social gathering place for exchange of information (choupal means gathering place in Hindi) and an e-commerce hub. As of July 2010, services through 6,500 e-Choupal across 10 states reach more than 4 million farmers in about 40,000 villages. The potential of e-Choupal is also being tested through pilot projects in healthcare, educational services, water management and cattle health management. In 2008, this initiative was recognised in the list of "Innovations to make markets more inclusive for the poor" in World Development Report Sep-2008 by the World Bank.^[59]

ITC Sangeet Research Academy

ITC Sangeet Research Academy is a Hindustani classical music academy established in 1977 and located in Kolkata.^[60] Some noted musicians are associated with this academy.^[61]

Awards and recognitions

• In 1994 and 1995, the ILTD Division in Chirala and Anaparti won the "Best of all" Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award^[62]
• ITC features on the Forbes Global 2000 rankings for 2012 at position 841.^[6] In the same rankings, the company's market value placed it as the 184th largest company in the world.^[6] Forbes has also included the company in Asia's Fab 50 Companies list.^[63]
• In 2013, ITC was ranked the third most admired company in India by Fortune.^[64]
• In 2011, all of ITC’s super premium luxury hotels were accorded LEED Platinum certification, making ITC Hotels the ‘Greenest Luxury Hotel Chain in the World’.^[65][66]
• In 2010, ITC was ranked 6th amongst global consumer goods companies in sustainable value creation during 2005-09, by Boston Consulting Group.^[67]
• It received the National Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance from the Institute of Company Secretaries of India in 2007.^[1][68]
• In 2006, ITC's e-Choupal program won the Stockholm Challenge Award 2006 in the Economic Development category. This program enables over 3.5 million farmers to access crop-specific and customised information in their native village habitat and language.^[69][70]
• In 2014, The Brand Trust Report, published by Trust Research Advisory, a brand analytics company, ranked ITC in the 9th position among India's most trusted brands in the Diversified sector.^[71]

Questionable business practices

While ITC has been noted for its sustainability practices, questions have been raised about the ethics of giving award to a company that generates significant amount of revenue from tobacco business.^[72] The company, has been known for seeking legal intervention against guidelines advocating prominent health advisories.^[73]

See also

• Tobacco industry
• Tobacco smoking
• Smoking in India

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to ITC Limited.

• Official website

British American Tobacco
Subsidiaries	Current Bentoel Group (85%) Pakistan Tobacco Company P.J. Carroll & Company Souza Cruz Bigott Nobleza Piccardo Ceylon Tobacco Company House of Prince Imperial Tobacco Canada Former Integrated1 Batus Inc. Brown & Williamson Murray, Sons and Company Rothmans International Sold Allied Dunbar British American Racing The Crescent Cunliffe-Owen Aircraft Eagle Star Insurance Farmers Insurance Group Frederick & Nelson Gimbels Kohl's Marshall Field's
Brands	Current Benson & Hedges Carroll's Craven A Cutters Choice du Maurier Dunhill Everest HB Kent King's Kool Lucky Strike Pall Mall Parisienne Peter Stuyvesant Player's Prince Rothmans State Express 555 Sweet Afton Tekel Viceroy Vogue Winfield Former Elita
People	Hugo Cunliffe-Owen James Buchanan Duke Sir Joseph Hood, 1st Baronet Jan du Plessis Nicandro Durante Richard Burrows
Other	Export House
1 Integrated into other British American Tobacco subsidiaries or business entities. Category Commons