Big Tobacco Brings Big Business to Illinois

Source from:  Chicago Tribune 12/08/2010

Smokeless products aren't just big business for Big Tobacco, they're big business for Illinois. In January 2009, Altria Group - owner of Philip Morris USA - acquired U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co., the world's leading producer and marketer of moist smokeless tobacco. Its 500,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Franklin Park is U.S. Smokeless Tobacco's primary facility for new product manufacturing. Altria employs about 400 people in Illinois and contributed more than $53.3 million to the Illinois economy in 2009 in employee wages and various taxes, including excise, use, payroll, property, income and franchise taxes. Enditem