altaria disambiguation . altria group inc. type public s & p 500 component traded as nyse mo industry tobacco founded 1985 ; 31 years ago 1985 founder philip morris kraft foods inc nabisco holdings corporation headquarters henrico county virginia u.s. area served worldwide key people martin barrington chairman & ceo products tobacco and wine revenue us 24.5 billion 2014 1 operating income us 7.06 billion 2014 1 net income us 5.05 billion 2014 1 total assets us 34.475 billion 2014 2 us 35.329 billion 2012 3 total equity us 3.01 billion 2014 4 number of employees 9 000 2014 website altria.com altria group inc. renamed from philip morris companies inc. on january 27 2003 is one of the world s largest tobacco and cigarette corporations . it is an international corporation based in henrico county virginia united states . altria is the parent company of philip morris usa john middleton inc. u.s. smokeless tobacco company inc. philip morris capital corporation and chateau ste. michelle wine estates . philip morris international was spun off in 2008 . altria maintains a 28.7 % stake in the uk based brewer sabmiller plc. it is a component of the s & p 500 and was a component of the dow jones industrial average until february 19 2008 . on january 6 2009 altria acquired ust inc. a smokeless tobacco manufacturer which also owned wine producer ste michelle wine estates and is now a subsidiary of altria . contents 1 history 2 holdings 3 brands 3.1 tobacco 3.2 wine 4 corporate governance 4.1 board of directors 4.2 headquarters 5 political influence 6 see also 7 references 8 external links history edit this section needs expansion . you can help by adding to it . december 2009 altria emerged from philip morris . the onset of rebranding of philip morris companies to altria took place in 2003 philip morris would later split with pm usa remaining altria s primary and only consistently held asset . altria was created because philip morris wished to emphasize that its business portfolio had come to consist of more than philip morris usa and philip morris international ; at the time it owned an 84 % stake in kraft 5 although that business has since been spun off . 6 the name altria is claimed to come from the latin word for high and was part of a trend of companies rebranding to names that previously did not exist accenture previously andersen consulting and verizon being notable examples 7 though linguist steven pinker suggests that in fact the name is an egregious example of phonesthesia with the company attempting to switch its image from bad people who sell addictive carcinogens to a place or state marked by altruism and other lofty values . 8 the company s branding consultants the wirthlin group said the name change alternative offers the possibility of masking the negatives associated with the tobacco business thus enabling the company to improve its image and raise its profile without sacrificing tobacco profits . 9 philip morris executives thought a name change would insulate the larger corporation and its other operating companies from the political pressures on tobacco . 9 the rebranding took place amidst social legal and financially troubled circumstances . vague 10 in 2003 altria was ranked fortune number 11 and has steadily declined since . in 2010 altria group mo ranked at fortune number 137 whereas its former asset philip morris international was ranked 94th . 11 in 2006 a united states court found that philip morris publicly ... disputed scientific findings linking smoking and disease knowing their assertions were false . 12 on march 30 2007 altria s 88.1 % stake in kraft foods inc was spun off through a distribution of the remaining stake of shares 88.1 % to altria shareholders . that same year altria began selling all its shares of philip morris international to altria stockholders a spin off that was completed on march 28 2008 . again in 2007 the company began the acquisition of cigar manufacturer john middleton co. from bradford holdings inc. which was complete in 2008 . after philip morris international spun off the former international subsidiaries halted the purchase of tobacco from america which was a major factor in the closing of a newly renovated plant in north carolina an approximately 50 % reduction in manufacturing large scale layoffs and induced early retirements . 13 in 2008 altria officially moved its headquarters from new york city to richmond virginia after philip morris sold its downtown offices in new york city a decade earlier . with a few exceptions all manufacturing commercial and executive employees had long been based in and around richmond . currently the company is headquartered in an unincorporated area within henrico county less than five miles west of the city limits of richmond and less than ten miles from its downtown richmond campus . aside from the philip morris altria headquarters some of their other buildings included the philip morris center for research and technology in downtown richmond their manufacturing center in south richmond and the adjacent operations center which began shutting down in 2007 2008 as a result of the loss of demand from pmi member companies . the layoffs beginning in 2007 affected thousands of altria altria client services philip morris usa and contracted employees in richmond and north carolina . in 2009 altria finalized its purchase of ust inc. whose products included smokeless tobacco made by u.s. smokeless tobacco company and wine made by ste. michelle wine estates . 14 this ended a short era of competition between the new marlboro smokeless tobacco products such as snus and those produced by ust inc. in 2015 the company was criticized for a number of active and possible lawsuits with countries such as uruguay australia and ireland over proposed changes to their cigarette packaging and anti smoking laws . 15 holdings edit altria group inc. owns 100 percent of philip morris usa john middleton inc. and philip morris capital corporation . it also owns 28.7 % sabmiller plc one of the world s largest brewing companies where it has 3 seats on the 11 person board of directors . before the recent restructuring the net revenue and operating income of altria group inc. came predominantly from its tobacco business as is shown in the following table . altria s share of sabmiller s revenue and profits is not included in the table below because its holding are too small to be consolidated in the group accounts . 16 activity net revenue in 2006 millions usd net revenue in 2006 % operating income in 2006 millions usd operating income in 2006 % usa tobacco 18 474 18.2 % 4 812 26.5 % international tobacco 48 260 47.6 % 8 458 46.5 % north american food 23 118 22.8 % 3 753 20.7 % international food 11 238 11.1 % 964 5.3 % financial services 317 0.3 % 176 1.0 % total 101 407 100 % 18 163 100 % brands edit this article needs to be updated . please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information . september 2013 tobacco edit the corporation s brands include basic benson & hedges american version black & mild bond street cambridge chesterfield copenhagen english ovals f6 husky l & m markten marlboro merit next papastratos parliament players red seal sg skoal sampoerna a brand of indonesian kreteks virginia slims wine edit chateau ste. michelle snoqualmie erath hawk crest fourteen hands champagne nicolas feuillatte villa maria esk valley seven falls o wines domaine ste michelle stag s leap corporate governance edit board of directors edit members of the board of directors of altria group as of february 2013 were 17 elizabeth e. bailey 1989 professor emerita the wharton school university of pennsylvania gerald l. baliles 2008 director miller center of public affairs at university of virginia ; former virginia governor martin j. barrington chairman and chief executive officer altria group inc. john t. casteen iii 2010 president emeritus university of virginia dinyar s. devitre 2008 special advisor general atlantic partners new york ny ; former svp and cfo of altria thomas f. farrell ii 2008 chairman president and ceo dominion resources richmond va thomas w. jones 2002 senior partner twj capital llc stamford ct ; formerly with citigroup travelers and tiaa cref debra j. kelly ennis 2013 former president and ceo of diageo canada inc. ; also formerly with rjr nabisco inc. coca cola general motors and grand metropolitan w. leo kiely iii 2011 retired ceo millercoors llc golden co ; formerly with frito lay kathryn b. mcquade 2012 retired evp and cfo canadian pacific railway limited ; formerly with norfolk southern corporation george mu oz 2004 principal mu oz investment banking group llc washington dc ; partner tobin & mu oz chicago il ; formerly overseas private investment corporation and assistant secretary of the united states treasury department nabil y. sakkab 2008 retired svp corporate research and development procter & gamble cincinnati oh headquarters edit prior to being based in virginia philip morris had its headquarters in midtown manhattan new york city . 18 in 2003 philip morris announced that it would move its headquarters to virginia . the company said that it planned to keep around 750 employees in its former headquarters . brendan mccormick a spokesperson for philip morris said that the company estimated that the move would save the company over 60 million each year . 19 the company now has its head offices in an unincorporated area of henrico county virginia in richmond . 20 in addition the company has a 450 000 square foot 350 million center for research and technology located in downtown richmond at the virginia biotechnology research park that employs approximately 600 scientists engineers and support staff . political influence edit according to the center for public integrity altria spent around 101 million on lobbying the united states government between 1998 and 2004 making it the second most active organization in the nation . 21 22 altria also funded the advancement of sound science coalition which lobbied against the scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change . 23 daniel smith representing altria sits on the private enterprise board of the american legislative exchange council alec . 24 see also edit virginia portal new york city portal companies portal tobacco industry philip morris usa tobacco master settlement agreement references edit a b c altria group mo annual sec income statement filing via wikinvest altria group inc. 2013 annual report form 10 k xbrl . united states securities and exchange commission . december 31 2014 . altria group inc. 2013 annual report form 10 k xbrl . united states securities and exchange commission . february 26 2014 . altria group mo annual sec balance sheet filing via wikinvest philip morris completes its rebranding to altria group . retrieved 27 january 2016 . dan caplinger 15 march 2007 . coca cola vs. altria altria . retrieved 27 january 2016 . altria director discusses rebranding company cnnfn . finance wire . november 11 2003 . pinker steven 2007 . the stuff of thought . penguin books . p. 304 . a b altria means tobacco philip morris s identity crisis . pubmed central pmc . retrieved 27 january 2016 . us tobacco giant philip morris changed the name of its parent company to altria last week but the rebranding failed to hide the weak state of its business . fortune 500 2010 top 1000 american companies altria group mo fortune on cnnmoney.com . money.cnn.com . retrieved 2011 03 16 . the verdict is in findings from united states v philip morris pdf . tobacco legal consortium . 2006 . walker dionne 2007 06 26 . altria closing north carolina plant . usatoday.com . retrieved 2011 03 16 . our history altria 2001 present . altria.com . archived from the original on 2 september 2010 . retrieved 2010 09 16 .