Lorillard, Inc., through its Lorillard Tobacco Company subsidiary, is the third largest manufacturer of cigarettes in the United States. Founded in 1760, Lorillard is the oldest continuously operating tobacco company in the U.S. Newport, Lorillard s flagship premium cigarette brand, is the top selling menthol and second largest selling cigarette in the U.S. In addition to Newport, the Lorillard product line has four additional cigarette brand families marketed under the Kent, True, Maverick and Old Gold brand names. These five brands include 41 different product offerings which vary in price, taste, flavor, length and packaging. In April 2012, Lorillard acquired blu ecigs, the leading electronic cigarette company in the U.S. Lorillard maintains its headquarters and manufactures all of its cigarette products in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Bbc news – cigarette packet branding to face consultation

Brandchesterfield – cigarettes pedia

Packets will be a dark olive green, after the public was asked what the least attractive colour was.

Research published in Australia has suggested that cigarette packets have increasingly become an important marketing tool as restrictions on advertising and sponsorship have been brought in.

Mr Lansley told the Times he was open minded, but that he believed attractive packaging helped recruit smokers from a young age.

More than 300,000 children aged under 16 in England try smoking each year, according to government figures.

The consultation will also examine if plain packaging could lead to a rise in cigarette packets being sold on the black market.

Mr Lansley said the tobacco companies used certain colours to trigger memories and their brands constituted a type of advertising.

“We don’t want to work in partnership with the tobacco companies because we are trying to arrive at a point where they have no business in this country,” he added.

Counterfeiting ‘risk’

The consultation document is expected to suggest that branded tobacco packets create “smoker identity”, with certain brands seen as “cool” and “popular”, the paper reported.

It is also expected to say that tobacco firms use colours and logos to boost their profits.

The Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association said it “welcomed” the consultation.

But Jane Chisholm Caunt, secretary general of the TMA, said “There is no reliable evidence plain packaging will reduce rates of youth smoking.

“Smoking initiation in children is actually linked to a complex range of socio economic factors including home life, peer pressure and truancy and exclusion from school.”

And she warned plain packaging would only serve to make counterfeiting cigarettes easier.

Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ group Forest which runs the “Hands Off Our Packs” campaign, added “The consultation on plain packaging threatens to be a farce.

“Andrew Lansley says he is open minded yet he clearly supports plain packaging even before the consultation has begun.”

Smoking rates have fallen significantly since the link with cancer was established beyond doubt in the 1950s.

But it recent years the decline has slowed with the number of adult smokers hovering above the 21% for some time.

Ministers have promised to reduce this to 18.5% by 2015.