The story
Tobacco business and early years
"ITC Limited" was originally named "Imperial Tobacco Company of India Limited", succeeding Imperial Brands and W.D. & H.O. Wills on 24 August 1910 as a British-owned company registered in Kolkata. Since the company was primarily based on agricultural resources, it ventured into partnerships in 1911 with farmers from the southern part of India to source 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 in Bangalore.
In 1928, construction began for the company's headquarters, the 'Virginia House' at Kolkata (Calcutta). ITC acquired Carreras Tobacco Company's factory at Kidderpore in 1935 to further strengthen its presence. ITC helped set up an indigenous cigarette tissue-paper-making plant in 1946 to reduce import costs significantly. Then, a factory for printing and packaging was set up in 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.
2000s–present
In July 2023, ITC Limited's board of directors approved the demerger of its hotel business and the formation of a wholly owned subsidiary called ITC Hotels. The demerger came in to effect on 1 January 2025.
In March 2025, ITC announced the acquisition of the pulp and paper business of Aditya Birla Real Estate Limited for ₹3,498 crore (US$360 million).
In June 2025, ITC completed the acquisition of 100% share capital of Sresta Natural Bioproducts Pvt. Ltd. for ₹472.5 crore (US$49 million).
In April 2026, ITC announced that Sproutlife (the manufacturer of Brand YOGABAR) has become its subsidiary with 47.50% of share capital with ITC.
From Wikipedia’s article on ITC Limited, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4