Brown & Williamson in Petersburg

Source from:  The Petersburg Progress-Index 03/08/2009

Brown & Williamson was founded in 1893 and was headquartered in Louisville, Ky. In 1927 the Brown and Williamson families sold the business to London-based British American Tobacco plc. The business was reorganized as the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. Manufacturing and distribution were expanded, and work on a new B&W factory in Louisville was begun. Brown & Williamson's three big cigarette brands were Raleigh, Kool and Viceroy. In the mid-1800s up to 1860, several tobacco factories were developed in the area, especially on both sides of Brown Street at the corner of Perry Street. One was used as the North Carolina Hospital during the Civil War, but it burned. After that war, the Camerons built a tobacco factory at the site of the burned factory, part of which survives. 1932: Brown & Williamson opens a cigarette manufacturing plant in Petersburg. The Petersburg plant was the city's largest employer and during its heyday employed 4,000 workers and produced about 300 million cigarettes a day. 1979: Brown & Williamson announces cutbacks in its Louisville and Petersburg plants. After the cutbacks, the Petersburg plant has 2,900 workers with an annual payroll of more than $30 million. January 1983: Brown and Williamson's total workforce are being cut nearly in half by early 1983. A total of 1,215 employees were been cut in the first months of the year. However, a corporate spokesman says plans are to lay off no more than one-third of the total workforce at the Petersburg plant. Officials also say Brown and Williamson's Petersburg plant is not in danger of a shutdown. August 1983: Brown & Williamson announces layoffs of 575 workers from the Petersburg plant. Oct. 28, 1983: The announced layoffs of the 575 Petersburg workers takes effect. Dec. 13, 1983: Brown & Williamson announces that it will close the Petersburg plant in two years. The plan employs about In 1983, Brown & Williamson is one of the largest taxpayers in Petersburg, contributing $550,000 in real estate and personal property taxes to city coffers. Just a decade earlier, the company's plant and 38 tobacco warehouses, which lined the railroad tracks in the city's northwest corner, employed 4,000 workers. September 1985: Brown & Williamson announces schedule of layoffs. October 1985: Production officially ceases at the Petersburg plant. Dec. 2, 1985 - Brown & Williamson President T.E. Sandefur says closing operations was a "very difficult decision to make - to leave home, to leave Petersburg." Dec. 3, 1985: Brown & Williamson turns over the deed of its 47-acre, 38-unit warehouse property to the city. The donation of the warehouses is valued at $2 million. Dec. 6, 1985: Final layoff production workers - 200 lose jobs. Only a few clerical and maintenance workers remain. Plant began its final-phase operation and more than 1,000 workers have been laid off since early October 1985. Dec. 31, 1985: Brown & Williamson officially closes its Petersburg facilities. Petersburg operations are moved to a Brown & Williamson plant in Macon, Ga., which had a more modern plant that was built in 1977. July 30, 2004: The U.S. operations of Brown & Williamson merged with R.J. Reynolds, creating a new publicly traded parent company, Reynolds American Inc. Company headquarters in Winston-Salem, N.C. Enditem