ITC Limited is an Indian multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Kolkata, West

Bengal.[5] Established in 1910 as the 'Imperial Tobacco Company of India Limited', the company
was renamed as the 'India Tobacco Company Limited' in 1970 and later to 'I.T.C. Limited' in
1974. The dots in the name were removed in September 2001 for the company to be renamed
as 'ITC Limited' where 'ITC' would no longer be an initialism. The company completed 100 years in
2010 and as of 2012–13, had an annual turnover of US$8.31 billion and a market capitalization of
US$52 billion. It employs over 30,000 people at more than 60 locations across India and is part
of Forbes 2000 list.

Tobacco business and early years[edit]

"ITC Limited" was incorporated under the name 'Imperial Tobacco' which was later renamed as
'Imperial Tobacco Company of India Limited', succeeding W.D. & H.O. Wills on 24 August 1910 as a
British-owned company registered in Calcutta.[6] Since the company was largely based on
agricultural resource, it ventured into partnerships in 1911 with farmers of southern part of India for
sourcing leaf tobacco. Under the company's umbrella, the 'Indian Leaf Tobacco Development
Company Limited' was formed in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh in 1912. The first cigarette
factory of the company was set up in 1913 at Bangalore. In 1918, leaf-buying points were created in
southern India. ITC's cigarette factory at Munger was equipped with printing facility in 1925, paving
way for its first non-tobacco business.
Though the first six decades of the Company's existence were primarily devoted to the growth and
consolidation of the cigarettes and leaf-tobacco businesses, ITC's packaging & printing business
was set up in 1925 as a strategic backward integration for ITC's cigarettes business. It is today
India's most sophisticated packaging house.[7] More factories were set up in the following years for
cigarette manufacturing across India.
In 1928, construction began for the company's headquarters, the 'Virginia House' at Calcutta. ITC
acquired Carreras Tobacco Company's factory at Kidderpore in 1935 to further strengthen its
presence. ITC helped to set up indigenous cigarette tissue-paper-making plant in 1946 to
significantly reduce the import costs and a factory for printing and packaging was set up at Madras in
1949. The Company acquired the manufacturing business of Tobacco Manufacturers (India) Limited
and the complementary lithographic printing business of Printers (India) Limited in 1953.

Towards Indianization and business diversification[edit]

The company was converted into a Public Limited Company on 27 October 1954. The first step
towards Indianization was taken in the same year with 6% of Indian shareholding of the company.
ITC also became the first Indian company to foray into consumer research during this time. During
1960's, technology was given more focus with setting up of cigarette machinery and filter-rod
manufacturing facilities aimed at achieving self-sufficiency in cigarette-making.
Ajit Narain Haskar became the company's first Indian chairman in 1969 and this was crucial in
building up the Indian management for the company. As the company's ownership progressively
Indianised, under Haskar's leadership, the name of the company was changed from 'Imperial
Tobacco Company of India Limited' to 'India Tobacco Company Limited' in 1970. ITC also became
the first company in India to start phased Indianisation of capital and the Indian shareholding of ITC
grew from 6% to 25%. ITC entered into brand sponsorship for various sporting events, starting from
the 1971 Scissor's Cup. Innovative market campaigns and electronic data processing were started in
the 1970s.
In 1973, ITC set up its integrated research center in Bangalore, aimed at diversification and
venturing into newer businesses with research and development. With the unfolding diversification
plans, the name of the company was changed to 'I.T.C. Limted' in 1974. The Indian shareholding
grew further to 40% during this time. ITC entered into the hospitality sector with hotel business in
1975 with the acquisition renaming of ITC Welcomgroup Hotel Chola in Madras. ITC chose the
hospitality sector for its potential to earn high levels of foreign exchange, create tourism
infrastructure and generate large scale direct and indirect employment.
The shareholding went over 60% in 1976 and more hotels were started by the company in the
following years. ITC Sangeet Research Academy was set up at Calcutta in 1977. In 1979, ITC
entered the paperboards business by promoting ITC Bhadrachalam Paperboards Limited. J N Sapru
took over as the company's chairman in 1983 and the international expansion started with the
acquisition of Surya Nepal Private Limited in 1985. The year 1986 saw vigorous moves from the
company with opening of an Indian restaurant was in the city of New York, acquisition and renaming
of Vishvarama Hotels to ITC Hotels Limited, setting up of two new ventures - the ITC Classic
Finance Limited and ITC Agro Tech Limited under its umbrella. ITC also entered into the edible oils
industry with the launch of 'Sundrop' brand of cooking oils in 1988. Tribeni Tissues Limited was
acquired in 1990. K L Chugh assumed the role of chairman in 1991 and ITC Global Holding Private
limited was started as an international trading company in Singapore in 1992. In 1994, all the hotels
under the company were transferred into the listed subsidiary company ITC Hotels Limited. ITC,
through the brand 'Wills', sponsored the 1996 Cricket World Cup.
Y C Deveshwar took over as the company's chairman in 1996 and the corporate governance
structure was re-crafted to support effective management of multiple businesses. ITC exited from
edible oils business and financial services; sold the ITC Classic Finance Limited to ICICI Limited and
handled the 'Sundrop' business to ConAgra Foods Limited in 1998. In the year 2000, an innovative
initiative for farmers called 'e-Choupal' was started in Madhya Pradesh in 2000. The same year
witnessed the launch of ITC's 'Wills Sport' range of casual wear with first retail outlet in New Delhi
and ITC's entry into stationery products and gifting business introducing the 'Expressions' range of
greeting cards and 'Classmate' notebooks. A wholly owned information technology subsidiary, ITC
Infotech India Limited was also started in 2000 and the ITC Bhadrachalam Paperboards Limited was
merged into ITC Limited. The name of the company was changed to 'ITC Limited' omitting the dots
and adapting the strategy 'No stops for ITC' in 2001. Employee stock option scheme was introduced
for the first time and a web portal for the company was launched. Subsidiaries for ITC Infotech were
set up at United Kingdom and USA.

Products and brands[edit]

Cigarettes[edit]
ITC Ltd sells 81% of the Cigarettes, Bidi in Asia, where 275 million people use tobacco products and
the total cigarette market is worth close to $11 billion (around Rs. 757399.4[8]million).
ITC's major cigarette brands include Wills Navy Cut, Gold Flake Kings, Gold Flake Premium
lights, Gold Flake Super Star, Insignia, India Kings, Classic (Verve, Menthol, Menthol Rush, Regular,
Citric Twist, Ice Burst, Mild & Ultra Mild), 555, Silk Cut, Scissors, Capstan, Berkeley, Bristol, Lucky
Strike, Players, Flake and Duke & Royal.

Other businesses[edit]
 Foods: ITC's major food brands include Kitchens of India; Aashirvaad, B natural, Sunfeast,
Candyman, Bingo! and Yippee!. ITC is India's largest seller of branded foods with of over Rs.
4,600 crore in 2012-13. It is present across 6 categories in the food business including snack
foods, ready-to-eat meals, fruit juices, dairy products and confectionery.
 Personal care products include perfumes, haircare and skincare categories. Major brands
are Fiama Di Wills, Vivel, Savlon Soap & Handwash, Essenza Di Wills, Superia and Engage.
 Stationery: Brands include Classmate, PaperKraft and Colour Crew. Launched in 2003,
Classmate went on to become India's largest notebook brand in 2007.
 Safety Matches and Agarbattis: Ship, i Kno and Aim brands of safety matches and
the Mangaldeep brand of agarbattis (Incense Sticks).
 Hotels: ITC's Hotels division (under brands including WelcomHotel) is India's second-largest
hotel chain with over 90 hotels throughout India. ITC is also the exclusive franchiseein India of
two brands owned by Sheraton International Inc. Brands in the hospitality sector owned and
operated by its subsidiaries include Fortune Park Hotels and WelcomHeritage Hotels.
 Paperboard: Products such as specialty paper, graphic and other paper are sold under the ITC
brand by the ITC Paperboards and Specialty Papers Division like Classmate product of ITC, well
known for their quality.
 Packaging and Printing: ITC's Packaging and Printing division operates manufacturing facilities
at Haridwar and Chennai and services domestic and export markets.
 Information Technology: ITC operates through its fully owned subsidiary ITC Infotech India
Limited.

Shareholding and listings[edit]

ITC's equity shares are listed on Bombay Stock Exchange, National Stock Exchange of
India and Calcutta Stock Exchange.[9][10] The company's Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) are
listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.

Employees[edit]
As per the Annual report of the company, it had 25,963 employees as on 31 March 2013, out of
which 3,043 were women. It spent Rs. 2,145 crores on Employee benefits during the FY 2012-13.
During the same year, its attrition rate was 12%.
ITC's Chairman Y C Deveshwar has won renowned awards and recognition including Padma
Bhushan from Govt. of India 2005-09, by Boston Consulting Group and seventh-best-performing
CEO in the world by Harvard Business Review.
Meera Shankar, Indian ambassador to the USA between 2009 and 2011, in 2012 joined the board of
ITC Limited as the first woman director in its history.[11] She is an additional non-executive director of
the company.[12]
 ITC Hotels is India's third largest hotel chain with over 100 hotels.[1] It is based in the Hotels Division
Headquarters at Kolkata, West Bengal.[2] It is part of the ITC Limited group of companies.[3][4] ITC
Hotels is regularly voted amongst the best employers in Asia in the hospitality sector.[5]

Contents

 1History
 2ITC brands
 3ITC Hotels
 4References
 5External links

History[edit]
ITC Limited entered the hotel business on 18 October 1975 with the opening of a hotel in Chennai,
which was renamed Hotel Chola.[6]ITC Hotels has a reputation of playing host to visiting royalty and
world leaders time and again.[7][8][9][10]

ITC brands[edit]

ITC Grand Maratha Hotel, Mumbai

ITC Kohenur Hyderabad, Telangana

Lavasa Fortune Hotel courtyard, Lavasa, Maharashtra

The group today operates under several distinct brands:

 Fortune Hotels, which has 54 hotels with 4,446 rooms in 41 cities across India[11]
 Welcom Heritage Hotels

ITC Hotels[edit]
 ITC Rama International Aurangabad
 ITC Grand Bharat, Gurgaon
 ITC Maurya, New Delhi
 ITC Maratha, Mumbai
 ITC Grand Central, Mumbai
 ITC Sonar, Kolkata
 ITC Royal Bengal, Kolkata
 ITC Fortune Park BBD Lucknow
 ITC Grand Chola, Chennai
 ITC Narmada, Ahmedabad (Opening in 2019)
 ITC Gardenia, Bangalore
 ITC Windsor, Bangalore
 ITC Kakatiya, Hyderabad
 ITC Kohenur, Hyderabad[12]
 ITC Rajputana, Jaipur
 ITC Mughal, Agra
 ITC Grand Goa Resort and Spa, Goa (Previously, Park Hyatt Goa, before acquisition)[13][14]
 ITC hotel Colombo, Colombo (Opening in 2020)
 Grand central

It is one of India's tallest hotels and soars to a height equal to 35-floors