Godfrey Phillips India

Godfrey Phillips India Ltd. (GPI) is a tobacco manufacturer headquartered in India. The Company was originally established as "Godfrey Philips Ltd." in London in 1844.[2] GPI was the first UK company to mass-produce cigarettes, apart of being one of the founding companies of Imperial Tobacco along with John Player & Sons.

Godfrey Phillips India Ltd.
IndustryTobacco
Founded1844 (1844) in London
FounderGodfrey Philips
HeadquartersDelhi,
India (since 1967)[1]
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Bina Modi (President & MD)
Bhisham Wadhera (CEO)
ProductsCigarettes, Tobacco leaf, Candies, Chewing gum
Brands
ParentModi Enterprises
Websitegodfreyphillips.com

GPI manufactures and sells cigarettes, smoking tobacco and cigars,[1] apart of having a non-tobacco line of products released in 2009 that include confectionery.[3] GPI is the flagship company of Modi Enterprises,[4] one of the largest cigarette manufacturers.

The company has an annual turnover of approximately 7200 crores, according to the 2018-19 estimate. The Company also has business interests in pan masala, chewing and confectionery products. Godfrey Phillips India recently launched Pan Vilas pan masala for the Indian market. Additionally, the company also manufactures and distributes Marlboro in India under a license agreement with Philip Morris.

History

The Company was originally established in London by entrepreneur Godfrey Philips as a publicly owned cigarette and tobacco manufacturer, in 1844.[2]

In 1967, Godfrey Phillips Ltd. of London made an arrangement with International Tobacco Co. who opened a factory in Northern India to manufacture on the Company's behalf. Upon the merger of D. Macropolo & Co. Ltd., with the company, International Tobacco Co. Ltd. became a subsidiary of it.[1]

Godfrey Phillips India's operations primarily span the country with prominence in northern and western part of the country. GPI has three manufacturing facilities spread across the country - at Rabale (Mumbai) and two units in Ghaziabad (near Delhi). They also have a state-of-the-art R&D centre in Mumbai and a food R&D in Ghaziabad, and a tobacco-buying unit in Guntur (Andhra Pradesh).

Godfrey Phillips India has an expansive International Business Division, that caters to all of GPI's product categories in International Markets. IBD has business associations with various players in international tobacco industry to export its own cigarette brands, cut & blended tobacco, tobacco leaf and providing technical services and contract manufacturing. Many countries from the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia and Latin America are a part of its portfolio.

Brands and products

GPI manufactures a variety of products related to tobacco through its subsidiary brands. Godfrey Phillips India also manufactures and distributes iconic cigarette brand Marlboro under a license agreement with Philip Morris International Inc. Likewise, the company also has a non-tobacco range of products. They are detailed below:[5]

Product Brand/s
CigarettesCavanders, Four Square, Marlboro (owned by Philip Morris), Red & White, Stellar, North Pole, Tipper
Tobacco leaf– [note 1]
CandiesFunda Goli
Pan masalaPan Vilas
Vapes Verge
Notes
  1. GPI is tobacco provider of companies such as Philip Morris, ITG, JTI, Eastern Co., European Tobacco, Libyan Tobacco Company and RNTA.

Trading cards

Godfrey Phillips Ltd. also produced a large variety of cigarette cards to advertise their products, with several topics such as film actresses, animals, aircraft, famous people from history, among others. The first cards set was launched in 1904 and featured anonymous pin-up girls.[2]

In the 1920s, the company took advantage of the rise popularity of association football trading cards in those times, releasing football collections in 1920, 1922 and 1923. Godfrey Phillips Ltd. issued a series of 1,100 football cards of the first collection, followed by 2,462 in 1922 and 940 in 1923.[6]

Nevertheless, the outbreak of the World War II caused a severe shortage of paper, and tobacco companies were forced to bring an end to the production of cigarette cards.[6]

Godfrey Phillips cigarette cards

See also

References
  1. Godfrey Phillips India History on Economic Times.com
  2. Godfrey Phillips, Ltd. on Dumbarton Oaks website
  3. GFI non-tobacco products
  4. About us on Godfrey Company website
  6. The History of Football Cigarette Cards by John Simkin, on Spartacus Educational, September 1997
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