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RAI Sells International Brand Rights To Foreign Group

Kumar Macmilan via Flickr

Reynolds American Inc. has announced the sale of the rights to it's Natural American Spirit businesses to the Japan Tobacco Group.  The sale is a cash transaction worth about $5 billion.

Selling the rights to the American Spirit brand is not the same as selling ownership of the cigarettes.

The American Spirit brand in the U.S will remain under the Reynolds American umbrella.

The JT Group will inherit a global market for American Spirit, which sells well in Japan, Germany and Switzerland. The international companies being sold employ about 280 people, primarily in Europe and Japan.

Susan Cameron is Reynolds Americans president and CEO.

In a statement she said the company wanted a buyer with an established global infrastructure. She says Reynolds can now focus solely on growing the brand in the U.S. market.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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