Altria Corporation

Altria Group is the mother company of Phillip Morris international (altria, 2007), company known for its dominance in the world of tobacco production. Altria, which means “tobacco” (Offen, 2006), became the official company name of Phillip Morris Companies since 2003. Today, this company is considered to be the largest tobacco firm in the world market. The company not only caters on the production of tobacco products but also the manufacturing of some food products like Jell-O, Kool-Aid and a lot more since they are part owner of Kraft Foods– ranked second in food production next to Nestle’.

Current Situation of the Company By this year, Altria Group is currently ranked 71st in the Fortune Global 500. With a profit of about $12 million and a profit growth rate of 15. 2%, Altria is now playing a good position in the global market (cnnmoney. com, 2007). As compared to other tobacco producers in the market, Altria defeated British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco and Altadis. As most of the market analysts, most of the profit of the company is attributed to its international sales.

The company sells more abroad than inside US. Based from the company’s quarterly report, on their fourth quarter period sales increased by 13% due to the purchase of Indonesia and Columbia. Last 2006, the total sales of Altria is around 35,000 units and continuously increasing (Burritt, 2006). Currently, some of the bulk of their profits comes from the increase of their tobacco product prices. It is their Marlboro brand that keeps their sales on a smooth track and still remains their “trade mark”.
Marlboro becomes popular in the 1970’s that bring the company on its greatest height. Currently, Altria plans to concentrate solely on the production of tobacco. As of March 30, 2007, Kraft Foods already separated into different business entities, this makes Altria no longer have any interest in Kraft Foods. Impression with the World Wide Operation of Altria Group Well, the company has indeed a lot of “right” to claim that they are the best tobacco company internationally.
The company has its adequate resources to finance all of its undertaking here and abroad. It is a good thing that this company operates internationally because it supplies the ever increasing demand for tobacco products in other country. If it is not the help of Altria Group, there would be a shortage in the supply of tobacco products giving pressure to its prices to increase significantly harming the consumers since they will have to pay higher price tobacco products that what is socially right.
As of now, the existence of Altria Group in the market is beneficial given the current situation of various agents in the market. But for sure, there would come a time wherein the dominance of Altria in the tobacco industry could harm other businesses. It is up to the government to keep track of the performance of the tobacco industry and impose appropriate policies to equilibrate the market.